LIBRARY  OF  P^^iNCETON 


MAR  2  5   ;:007 


THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


MAR    7   191-10 


VIE 

f)i:  J.  CALVIN 

PAR  ^Z- 

THEODORE  DE  BEZE 

NOIIVRLLE    EDITION,    PUBLIKE    ET    ANNOTEE 

PAR 

ALFRED  FIUNKUN 

de  la  bililioUi^fiue  Mazarine 


PARIS 

:53,    RUE    DE    SEINE 
M  DCCC  LXIX 


VIE 


DE  J.  CALVIN 


PARIS.  —  TYPOGRAPHIE  DE  CH.  MEYRUEIS 

13,  rue  Cujjis.  -  1869. 


INTRODUCTION. 


c^ 


GALYIN  ET   SON  OEUVRE. 


L  y  avait  a  Paris,  en  1540, 
iin  jeiine  homme  siir  lequel  il 
semblait  que  quelque  fee 
bienfaisante  eiit  epuise  lous 
ses  dons.  II  appartenait  a  line  famille 
noble,  avait  des  parents  haut  places, 
et  venait  d'atteindre  vingt  et  un  ans. 


NTRODUCTION. 


Ses  adversaires  memes  avoiient  que 
c'etail  alors  le  plus-  charmant  cavalier 
qu'on  put  voir,  bien  fait,  spirituel,  I'air 
fin  et  distingue,  de  manieres  exquises, 
tres-estime  des  grands,  tres-recherche 
des  dames. 

Gertes,  les  elegants  gentilslionimes 
ne  manquaient  pas  a  la  cour  de  Fran- 
cois F*^;  mais  ce  qui  y  faisait  de  Theo- 
dore de  Beze  un  type  a  part,  c'est  qu'il 
avait  approfondi  sous  les  meilleurs 
maitres  la  philosophic,  la  jurispru- 
dence, les  langues  anciennes,  le  grec 
surtout,  et  pouvait  lutter  d'erudition 
avec  les  hommes  les  plus  savants  de 
son  temps.  De  tout  cela  d'ailleurs,  il 
ne  se  souciait  guere,  c'etait  la  poesie 
qu'il  aimait  par-dessus  tout;  et  a  Tepo- 
que  dont  nous  parlons,  sa  reputation 


^^ 


id 


CALVIN 


l^ECRET   PROVIDENCE. 


TRANSLATED^-  *. 

"■•■■•'  "•)  1951 


BY 


JAMES    LILLIE 


NEW  YORK : 
ROBERT  CARTER,  58  CANAL  STREET. 

1840. 


•  X 


> 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty,  by 

JAMES  LILLIE, 

mthe  Clerk's  Office  of  the  Southern  DistrictofNew  York. 


W.  B.  &  T.  SMITH,  PRINTERS, 
89  Nassau,  and  128  Fulton  Streets. 


CONTENTS. 


Translator's  PreTace, 3 

Calumniator's  Preface, 7 

John  Calvin's  Reply  to  the  Calumniator's  Preface,  9 
Articles  alleged  by  tiie  Calumniator  to  be  taken 

from  the  Works  of  John  Calvin, 15 

Art.  I. 
God,  by  a  simple  and  pure  act  of  his  will,  created 
the  greatest  part  of  the  world  for  destruction,    -    15 

Art.  II. 
God  not  only  predestinated  to  damnation ;  but  he 
also  predestinated  Adam  to  the  causes  of  damna- 
tion ;  whose  fall  he  not  only  foresaw,  but  deter- 
mined from  Eternity  by  a  secret  decree,  and 
ordained  that  he  should  fall ;  and  that  this  might 
come  to  pass  in  his  time,  he  set  forth  the  apple, 
the  cause  of  the  fall,    ---. 33 

Art.  III. 
The  sins  which  are  committed,  are  committed  not 
only  by  the  permission,  but  also  by  the  will  of 
God.  For  it  is  frivolous  to  make  a  distinction 
between  the  permission  and  the  will  of  God,  so 
far  as  sin  is  concerned.  Those  who  do  so,  wish 
to  gain  God's  favour  by  compliments  and  adula- 
tion,       38 

Art.  IV. 
That  all  the  crimes  which  any  man  commits,  are  the 
good  and  just  works  of  God, 54 

Art.  V. 
That  no  adultery,  theft,  or  homicide  is  committed, 
without  the  will  of  God  being  concerned.    Ins. 
Cap.  14.  Distinc.  44, 59 


11  CONTEXTS. 

Art.  VI. 
The  Scripture  openly  testifies  that  crimes  are  ap- 
pointed, not  luerely  by  the  will,  but  by  the  au- 
thority of  God, 59 

Art.  VII. 
What  men  do  in  sinning,  they  do  by  the  will  of  God, 
since  very  often  the  will  of  God  is  inconsistent 
with  the  precept, 63 

Art.  VIII. 
The  hardening  of  Pharaoh,  and  con.^equently  his 
obstinacy  and  rebelhon,  were  the  work  of  God, 
even  by  the  testimony  of  Moses,  who  ascribes  the 
whole  rebellion  of  Pharaoh  to  God, 77 

Art.  IX. 
The  will  of  God  is  the  highest  cause  of  the  harden- 
ing of  man, .78 

Art.  X. 
Satan  is  a  liar  by  the  command  of  God,     -    -    -     -    83 

Art.  XI. 
God  gives  will  to  those  doing  wrong ;  He  even  sug- 
gests wicked  and  dishonourable   affections,  not 
only  perraissively  but  efficaciously,  and  that  lor  his 
own  glory, 85 

Art.  XII. 
The  wicked,  by  their  wickedness,  do  God's  work 
rather  than  their  own, 93 

Art.  XIII. 
We  sin  necessarily  by  the  design  of  God,  when  we 
sin  by  our  own,  or  by  chance, 95 

Art.  XIV. 
The  wickedness  which  men  perpetrate  by  their 
own  volition,  proceeds  also  from  the  volition  of 
God, 95 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE, 


If  the  principles  discussed  in  the  following  pages  were 
merely  theoretical,  the  translator  would  deem  the  time 
which  he  has  bestowed  on  preparing  them  for  the  press, 
little  better  than  thrown  away.  This,  however,  in  his 
judgment,  is  not  the  case.  On  the  contrary,  he  is  per- 
suaded, that  the  subject  treated  is  eminently  practical, 
and  that  the  glory  of  God,  no  less  than  the  good  of  man, 
is  essentially  involved,  in  maintaining  the  doctrine  that 
"  all  things  are  of  God." 

The  form  in  which  the  subject  is  presented,  will,  it 
is  hoped,  not  be  uninteresting,  as  it  seems  to  combine 
the  spirit  and  point  of  actual  debate,  the  calmness  of 
solitary  determination,  and  the  clearness  and  force  of 
consecutive  reasoning.  The  desire  to  unite  these  seem- 
ingly incompatible  advantages,  has  given  to  speculative 
discussions  the  shape  of  dialogues.  But  there  is  much 
force  in  the  objection  urged  by  Hume  against  the  prac- 
tice, that  the  author  has  some  opinions  of  his  own  to 
maintain,  and  tliat  tlie  arguments  which  he  puts  into  tJie 


iv  translator's  preface. 

mouth  of  his  antagonist  are  not  always  the  best  that 
might  be  found,  nor  presented  in  the  language  most 
fitted  to  give  them  their  full  weight.  Here,  however, 
the  reader  does  not  hsten  to  Hervey  musing  under  the 
feigned  names  of  Theron  and  Aspasio ;  nor  to  the  amia- 
ble and  ingenious  Berkeley  idealising  as  Hylas  and 
Philonous:  but  he  hears  the  greatest  of  the  Reformers 
vindicating  his  principles,  point  by  point,  against  every 
cavil,  that  an  objector  both  subtle  and  fluent  could 
devise.  It  is  not  believed  that  the  enemies  of  Calvinism, 
will,  in  general,  disclaim  their  champion,  though  his  vizor 
is  down  ;  while  those  who  are  opposed  to  them  will  be 
satisfied  with  the  defence. 

There  has  been  recently,  and  still  is,  some  difference 
in  opinion  as  to  what  doctrines  were  really  maintained 
by  Calvin;  and  opposing  controversialists  have  respec- 
tively appealed  to  his  authority  in  defence  of  their  own 
sentiments. 

A  distinguished  writer*  has  amused  himself  in  ima- 
gining how  the  stern  Reformer  would  look,  were  he  to 
return  to  earth,  on  some  calling  themselves  Calvinists, 
and  how  quickly  he  would  tell  them  to  begone  to  the 
camp  of  Arminius.  The  fine  fancy  of  that  gentleman 
will  not  be  wanting  to  enable  him  to  imagine  how  Cal- 
vin would  deal  with  himself  in  the  case  supposed. 
Though  dead,  he  yet  speaks  in  this  httle  volume,  and 
commands  him  no  longer  to  assume  the  uniform  of  the 

*  Dr.  Chaiiniiig. 


TRANSLATOR  S    PREFACE.  V 

Christian  host,  but  to  betake  himself  forthwith  to  the 
camp  of  Infidel. 

It  is  probable  that  many,  besides  the  writer  referred 
to,  may  be  offended  with  the  plain  language  of  the  Re- 
former. The  translator,  however,  did  not  feel  at  liberty 
to  consult  the  taste  of  such,  by  softening  epithets  which 
modern  courtesy  has  discarded.  So  far  as  this  had  been 
done,  the  fidelity  of  the  translation  must  have  suffered ; 
and  besides,  he  is  not  disposed  to  concur  in  the  indiscrimi- 
nate condemnation,  which  it  is  but  too  common  to  pro- 
nounce on  every  thing  like  severity  and  indignation  in 
theological  debate.  He  more  than  suspects  that  the  call 
for  mildness,  proceeds  fully  as  often  from  indifference  to 
all  doctrinal  distinctions,  as  from  Christian  meekness. 
He  cannot  shut  his  eyes  to  the  fact,  that  the  loudest  cen- 
sors of  such  asperities,  are  often  the  very  men  who  go 
the  greatest  lengths  in  political  invective.  The  reason 
is,  they  are  interested  in  their  politics.  Let  them  remem- 
ber that  we  Christians  are  interested  in  our  creed  ;  and 
that  if  they  feel  justified  in  their  warmth,  because  they 
beheve  their  property  and  even  liberty  are  involved ; 
we  are  not  ashamed  of  our  zeal  when  convinced  that 
riches  inexhaustible  and  liberty  everlasting,  are  at  stake. 
The  names  which  Calvin  frequently  applies  to  his 
assailant,  and  which  perhaps  will  be  most  apt  to  shock 
a  merely  modern  ear,  are  dog  and  swine.  It  must  not, 
however,  be  forgotten  that  Christ  himself  uses  the  same 
expressions,  and  that  in  tliis  He  is  followed  by  an  Apos- 


VI  TRANSLATOR  S    PREFACE. 

tla.  The  question  for  consideration  is  whether  Calvin 
applies  the  terms  as  Christ  and  Peter  did.  This  is  a 
point  for  Christian  wisdom  to  determine ;  and  the 
translator  knows  not  the  authority  now  living  on  the 
earth,  whose  judj^ment  on  this  matter  is  entitled  to  out- 
weigh, or  even  balance  the  Reformer's. 

It  was  at  first  intended  that  notes  should  be  appended 
to  the  text,  for  the  purpose  of  explaining  what  might 
seem  obscure,  and  enforcing  what  the  necessary 
limits  of  his  reply  prevented  the  author  from  insisting 
on.  The  purpose,  however,  has  been  abandoned. 
Second  thoughts  suggested  it  as  more  respectful  to  the 
celebrity  of  the  author,  as  well  as  becoming  the  obscurity 
of  the  translator,  to  send  forth  the  work  in  its  naked 
majesty.  Should  the  attempt  help,  in  any  measure,  the 
present  age  to  appreciate  more  adequately  than  it  does, 
him,  whom  when  but  22  years  old,  Scaliger  honoured  as 
the  most  learned  man  in  Europe,  whom  Melancthon 
distinguished  among  the  mighty  as  pre-eminently  ''  the 
divine  ;"*  and  who  almost  persuaded  Bolingbroke  to  be 
a  Christian;  above  all,  if  it  shall  be  blessed  by  Almighty 
God  to  advance  his  own  honour  in  the  maintenance 
of  his  truth,  and  the  salvation  of  men  in  the  reception 
of  it;  the  labour  of  the  translator  will  not  have  been  in 
vain. 

minebeck,  15  May,  1340. 


O'    6£o\oyoi. 


CALUMNIES   OF   A   CERTAIN   FELLOW 

AGAINST  THE    DOCTRINE  OF 

JOHN    CALVIN, 

ON    THE 

SECRET   PROVIDENCE   OF    GOD, 

WITH  CALVIN'S  REPLIES, 

CALUMNIATOR'S  PREFACE. 


John  Calvin,  though  your  name  is  very  famous  in 
ahiiost  the  whole  world,  and  your  doctrine  has  undoubt- 
edly  many  abettors,  yet  it  lias  also  many  adversaries. 
Now,  as  it  is  my  eager  wish,  that  doctrine  were  one,  as 
truth  is  one,  and  that  all  if  possible  might  harmonise  in 
it,  I  have  supposed  that  you  should  be  frankly  informed, 
of  the  objections  continually  made  to  your  doctrine,  that 
if  they  are  false,  you  may  refute  them,  and  send  the 
refutation  to  us,  that  so  we  may  be  able  to  withstand  the 
gainsayers  :  and  let  your  reasons  be  such  as  the  people 
can  understand. 

Though  there  are  many  things  in  regard  to  which 
many  differ  with  you,  yet  deferring  other  matters  to 
another  time,  I  shall  at  present  handle  with  you,  the 
single  argument  concerning  fate  or  predestination,  both 
because  this  point  is  exciting  great  tumults  in  the  chiuch. 


Vlll  TRANSLATOR  S    PREFACE. 

which  we  would  fain  see  terminated ;  and  because  in 
this  instance,  the  arguments  of  the  adversaries,  cannot 
as  yet  be  refuted,  from  the  books  which  you  have  hitherto 
pubhshed. 

I  will  here  set  down  in  a  desultory  way,  certain  arti- 
cles taken  from  your  books,  and  tossed  about  in  this 
discussion;  I  will  then  subjoin  what  is  ordinarily  alleged 
against  each  article,  that  you  may  perceive  what 
requires  an  answer. 


JOHN  CALVIN'S 


REPLY  TO  THE 


CALUMNIATOR'S  PREFACE, 


That  ray  doctrine  has  marxj  adversaries,  is  neither 
unknown  nor  astonishing  to  me :  for  it  is  no  new  thing 
for  Christ,  beneath  whose  standard  I  contend,  to  be  the 
object  of  abuse  to  many  babblers.  On  this  account 
alone  I  grieve,  that  through  my  side  is  pierced  the  sacred 
and  eternal  truth  of  Godrwhich  ought  to  be  reverently 
esteemed  and  adored  by  the  whole  world.  But  when  I 
see  that  from  the  beginning,  truth  has  been  subject  to  the 
many  calumnies  of  the  wicked,  and  that  Christ  himself 
(for  the  Celestial  Father  has  so  decreed)  must  needs  be 
the  mark  for  contradiction,  this  also  should  be  patiently 
endured.  The  virulent  assaults  of  the  wicked,  however, 
shall  never  make  me  repent  of  that  doctrine,  which  1 
am  assured  has  God  for  its  author.  Nor  have  I  so  little 
profited,  by  the  many  conflicts  in  which  God  has  exer- 
cised me,  that  I  should  now  be  alarmed  at  your  futile 
outcry.  Besides,  so  far  as  you  are  privately  concerned, 
my  masked  adviser,  this  is  some  consolation,  that  you 
could  not  be  ungrateful  to  a  man,  who  had  obliged  you 
more  than  you  deserved,  without  at  the  same  time  be- 
traying foul  impiety  against  God.  I  know  indeed  that  to 
you  Academicians,  there  is  no  sweetei'  game,  than  under 
1 


I  ANSAVER    TO    THE 

colour  of  doubt,  to  plnck  wp  every  particle  of  faith  in  me 
hearts  of  men :  and  how  witty  in  your  apprehension 
that  raillery  is,  which  you  cast  against  the  secret  provi- 
dence of  God,  is  sufficiently  evident  from  your  style, 
dissemble  it  as  you  may.  But  I  summon  you  and  your 
companions  to  that  Tribunal,  whence  by-and-bye  the 
Celestial  Judge,  by  the  lightning  alone  of  his  face  and 
breath,  will  effectually  prostrate  your  audacity.  Mean- 
Vv'hile,  I  am  confident,  that  I  can  soon  render  your 
smartness  as  offensive  to  honest  and  wise  i^eaders,  as  it 
is  secretly  pleasant  to  yourself. 

You  demand  of  me  a  refutation  of  your  treatise  which 
you  sent  to  Paris  from  Geneva,  by  stealth ;  that  un- 
known to  me,  the  poison  might  be  scattered  far  and 
wide,  without  its  antidote  ;  and  while  you  affect  some 
desire  of  information,  you  suppress  yoin*  name,  for  no 
reason  that  I  can  imagine,  but  because  you  were  aware, 
that  I  had  something  at  hand,  which  would  at  once  de- 
stroy the  credit  of  you  and  your  gang.  From  many 
marks,  however,  I  can  conjecture,  nav  I  may  conclude,- 
who  you  are  ;  but  it  is  of  no  importance  to  me,  whether 
you  wrote  with  your  own  hand,  or  whether  you  dictated 
to  a  Scottish  preacher  of  your  frenzies,  with  the  design 
of  his  carrying  to  Paris,  what  it  was  unlawfrd  to  publish 
here.  I  could  wish  indeed,  either  that  this  pamphlet 
had  another  author,  or  that  you  were  a  different  man 
from  what  you  are  ;  and  that  you  will  never  be  till  you 
have  felt  the  loveliness  of  candour.  Though  in  your 
intercourse  with  me  you  were  never  deficient  in  respect, 
yet  it  was  easy  to  see  how  prone  you  are  by  nature  to 
cavil.  This  vice,  which  you  aggravated  by  childish 
whims,  I  endeavoured  to  correct,  but  in  vain ;  because 
your  natural  tendency  had  been  aggravated  by  a 
wretched  vanity,  wiiich  strained  after  the  praise  of  acute- 
ness,  on  the  ground  of  a  few  very  silly,  and  worse  than 
insipid  jokes.  Nor  can  you  defend  yourself  by  the  ex- 
ample of  Socrates,  who  was  wont  to  sift  by  his  objections, 
opinions  of  every  kind.  For,  while  that  man  was  illus- 
trious, for  many  distinguished  excellencies,  they  were  all 


CALUMNIATORS    PREFACE,  XI 

Xarnished  by  that  vice,  in  which  alone,  you,  with  no  less 
impropriety  than  eagerness  seek  to  rival  him. 

You  demand  of  me  a  refutation  of  your  treatise,  such 
as  the  people  can  understand.  Now,  I  have  hitherto 
laboured  to  accomodate  myself,  to  the  apprehension  of 
the  simples*,  by  a  style  of  instruction,  at  once  perspicu- 
ous and  pure.  But  if  you  receive  no  statement  as  argu- 
ment, except  what  the  sense  of  carnal  man  approves,  by 
such  proud  disdain,  you  do,  with  your  own  hand,  bar 
the  approach  to  that  doctrine,  the  knowledge  of  which 
begins  in  reverence.  JNor  am  I  ignorant  of  the  jibes  of 
you,  and  those  like  you,  with  which  you  assail  God's 
mysteries;  just  as  if  everything  m.ust  lose  its  grace  and 
authority,  that  does  not  strike  your  fancy.  And  what  is 
meant  by  requiring  me  to  refute  eveiy  one  who  shall 
choose  10  rail  at  me  ?  For  even  Socrates,  whose  authority 
you  falsely  allege,  would  have  submitted  to  no  such  rule. 
I  for  my  part  have  no  fondness  for  indiscriminate  imita- 
tion ;  but  if  there  ever  wa?,  not  only  in  this  age,  but  in 
any  other,  a  man  who  constantly  set  himself  against  the 
wicked,  by  dissipating  their  calumnies ;  even  those  who 
dislike  and  injure  me,  will  give  me  some  credit  for  that 
kind  of  industry.  Wherefore  your  rant  is  the  more  in- 
tolerable, because,  while  with  the  blind  impetuosity  of 
impudence,  you  trample  on  all  my  labours,  you  enjoin 
a  task  already  three  or  four  times  accomplished. 

But  you  maintain  there  is  one  point,  on  which  I  am 
worsted  by  my  adversaries;  in  so  far  as  no  sufficient 
materials  for  a  defence,  can  be  found  in  anything  which 
I  have  hitherto  published.  That  point,  you  say,  is  pre- 
destination or  fate.  I  would  it  had  been  your  design, 
either  modestly  to  inquire,  or  at  least  to  dispute  with 
candour,  rather  than  by  outraging  all  decency,  and  for 
the  sake  of  extinguishing  the  light,  to  confound  things 
the  most  opposite.  Fate,  according  to  the  Stoics,  is  a 
necessity  springing  out  of  a  changeable,  and  complicated 
labyrinth,  and  binding  in  some  measure  God  himself. 
Instructed  by  the  Scriptures,  I  define  predestination,  as 
the  free  counsel  of  God,  by  vvliich  he  regulates 'ffie'  hu- 


XU  AlJSWER    TO    THE 

man  race,  and  all  the  individual  parts  of  the  universe,  ac- 
cording to  his  own  immense  wisdom,  and  incomprehen- 
sible justice.  Now,  if  the  depravity  of  your  disposition, 
and  the  lust  of  contention,  and  the  pride  of  the  devil  so 
bUnd  you,  that  you  see  nothing  at  midday,  yet  this  dis- 
tinction will  demonstrate  to  all  readers  who  have  eyes, 
what  fairness  there  is  in  your  criticism.  Besides,  had 
you  not  grudged  even  a  glance  at  my  books,  you  might 
thence  have  inferred,  how  little  pleased  I  am  with  that 
profane  word  fate ;  nay  you  would  have  read,  that  the 
same  objection  was  Jong  ago,  malignantly  and  invidiously 
brought  against  Augustine,  by  foul  fellows,  and  men 
like  yourself;  and  in  the  reply  of  that  pious  and  holy 
doctor,  there  is  a  brief  statement  of  what  is  sufficient  for 
my  defence  to  day. 

In  the  articles  too,  which  you  say  have  been  extracted 
from  my  books,  the  case  with  me  is  the  same  as  with 
that  author  of  happy  memory.  As  ihe  malevolent  were 
aware,  that  this  doctrine  was  not  popular,  they  with  the 
design  of  aggravating  the  dislike  of  it,  flung  about  pas- 
sages, partly  mutilated,  partly  distorted,  so  that  it  was 
impossible  for  the  uninformed,  to  come  to  any  but  an 
unfavourable  judgment.  But  though  at  first  sight  many 
supposed  them  extracted  from  his  writings,  yet  he  com- 
plains that  they  were  falsely  imputed  to  him  ;  inasmuch 
as  they  had  either  industriously  heaped  together  broken 
sentences,  or  by  changing  a  few  words,  had  artfully 
corrupted  pious  and  sound  doctrine,  in  order  to  create 
offence  in  the  minds  of  the  simple.  That  those  articles 
which  you  boast  of  propounding  from  my  books,  are 
precisely  of  the  same  kind,  wise  and  honest  readers  will 
easily  discover,  even  though  I  were  silent;  and  to  such 
it  will  not  be  troublesome,  to  compare  my  doctrine  with 
your  foul  calumnies.  And  this  I  maintain,  first  of  all, 
that  you  act  neither  a  manly  nor  an  ingenious  part,  when 
you  specify  no  passages,  to  show  intelligent  readers, 
that  I  write  what  you  allege.  For  what  can  be  more 
unjust,  when  I  have  published  so  many  books,  than 
vaguely  to  declare,  that  out  of  about  fifty  volumes,  four- 


XI]  1 

teen  articles  have  bf.en  gathered.  It  had  unquestiona- 
bly been  better,  were  a  drop  of  honesty  in  you,  either  to 
quote  my  sentences  word  for  word:  or  if  you  perceived 
anything  dangerous  to  have  warned  your  readers  of 
what  passages  to  beware.  Whereas,  by  branding  all  my 
works  promiscuously,  you  would  destroy  the  remem- 
brance of  them ;  and  what  in  my  books,  might  be  read 
without  any  offence,  you  malignantly  corrupt  for  your 
own  convenience,  and  so  render  hateful.  Now  while  I 
do  not  blame  the  prudence  of  Augustine,  in  so  temper- 
ing his  replies  as  to  avoid  odium,  when  he  met  the  un- 
principled craft  of  his  adversaries,  yet  I  think  it  better 
frankly  to  repel  your  slanders,  than  to  give  the  smallest 
symptom  of  turning  my  back. 


1* 


ARTICLES  GATHERED 

FROM  THE 

LATIN  AND  FRENCH  WORKS  OF 

JOHN  CALVIN, 

OJT  THE 

SUBJECT  OF  PREDESTINATION. 


Article  First,  i.  e.  Calumny  First. 

God,  hy  a_  simple  arid  pure  act  of  his  will, 
created  the  greatest  part  of  the  world  for 
destruction, 

Aminst  the  First. 

o 
Such  is  the  first  article ;  take  likewise  what  is  said 
against  it.  They  say,  the  first  article  is  against  nature, 
and  against  Scripture.  Of  nature  they  allege  thus. 
Every  animal  naturally  loves  its  offspring ;  now  this  na- 
ture is  from  God ;  from  which  it  follows  that  God  loves 
his  offspring.  For  he  would  never  make  animals  love 
their  offspring,  if  he  himself  likewise  did  not  lov^i  his. 
And  this  they  prove  by  the  following  argument.  The 
Lord  hath  said,  "  Shall  I  cause  to  bring  forth,  and  shall  I 
not  bring  forth,"  (Is.  Ixvi.  9.)  Hence  by  a  parity  of  rea- 
son, they  deduce  the  argument,  God  makes  animals  love 
their  offspring;  therefore  he  himself  loves  his  offspring. 
But  all  men  are  the  offspring  of  God;  for  God  is  the 
Father  of  Adam,  from  whom  all  men  are  sprung:  there- 
fore he  loves  all  men.    But  to  create  in  order  to  destroy, 


16  ONSECRET 

is  not  the  part  of  love,  but  of  hatred.  Therefore  he 
created  no  man  for  destruction.  Besides  creation  is  a 
work  of  love,  not  of  hatred  ;  consequently  in  love,  not 
in  hatred,  God  created  all  men.  Moreover,  there  is  no 
beast  so  savage,  (not  to  speak  of  man,)  as  to  design  the 
misery  of  it's  young,  in  their  production.  How  much 
less  God  ?  Were  he  not  worse  than  even  a  wolf? 
Christ  argues  thus;  "  If  ye  being  evil,  know  how  to 
give  good  gifts  unto  your  children,  how  much  more 
God?  Your  adversaries  also  argue  thus:  If  Calvin 
though  wicked,  would  yet  be  unwilling  to  beget  a  son 
for  misery,  how  much  less  God  ?  These  and  such  like 
things  they  speak  concerning  nature. 

Of  Scripture  on  the  other  hand,  they  speak  thus: 
God  saw  all  that  he  had  made,  and  it  was  very  good ; 
therefore,  man,  whom  he  had  made,  was  very  good. 
But  if  God  had  created  him  for  destruction,  he  had 
created  a  good  thing  for  destruction,  and  loves  to 
destroy  what  is  good ;  which  is  impious  even  to  think. 
Besides  God  created  one  man,  to  place  him  in  paradise, 
which  is  a  happy  life ;  therefore^  he  created  all  men  for 
a  happy  life.  For  all  were  created  in  one.  And  if  all 
fell  in  Adam,  all  must  have  stood  in  Adam,  and  that  on 
the  same  condition  as  Adam.  Again,  "  I  have  no  plea- 
sure in  the  death  of  the  wicked."  Again,  "  God  is  not 
wilhng  that  any  should  perish ;  but  would  that  all  should 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth."  Again,  if  God 
created  the  greatest  part  of  the  world  for  destruction,  it 
follows  that  his  anger  must  be  greater  than  his  mercy  ; 
and  yet  the  Scriptures  declares  that  he  is  slow  to  anger; 
so  that  his  anger  extends  only  to  the  third  or  fourth  gene- 
ration, while  liis  mercy  reaches  even  to  the  thousandth. 

J.  Calvin^  s  Reply  to  the  first  article  and  the 
criticism  of  the  Calumniator, 

The  first  article  you  take  hold  of,  is, 
that  God,  by  a  simple  and  pure  act  of 


PROVIDENCE,  17 

his  will,  created  the  greatest  part  of  the 
world  for  destruction.  Now,  all  that 
about  "  the  greatest  part  of  the  world," 
and  "  the  simple  pure  act  of  the  will  of 
God"  is  fictitious,  and  the  product  of  the 
workshop  of  ^^our  malice.  For,  though 
God  from  the  beginning  decreed  what- 
soever was  to  come  to  pass  with  the  whole 
human  race  ;  yet  this  way  of  talking  is 
no  where  to  be  met  with  in  my  writings, 
that  the  end  of  creation  is  eternal  de- 
struction. Therefore  like  a  swine,  you 
upset  with  your  snout,  a  doctrine  of  good 
odour,  in  order  to  find  in  it  something  of- 
fensive. Besides,  though  the  will  of  God 
is  to  me  the  highest  of  all  reasons,  yet  I 
everywhere  teach,  that  where  the  reason 
of  his  counsels  and  his  works,  does  not 
appear,  the  reason  is  hid  with  him ;  so 
that  he  has  always  decreed  justly  and 
wisely.  Therefore  I  not  only  reject,  I 
detest  the  trifling  of  the  Schoolmen  about 
absolute  power,  because  they  separate 
his  justice  from  his  authority.  Now  see, 
dog,  what  you  gain  by  your  froward 
barking.  1,  subjecting  as  I  do  the  human 
race  to  the  will  of  God,  loudly  declare 
that  he  decrees  nothing  without  the  best 


18  ONSECRET 

reason,  which  if  unknown  to  us  now, 
shall  be  cleared  up  at  last.  You,  thrust- 
ing forward  your  ''simple  and  pure  act 
of  will"  impudently  upbraid  me  with 
that,  which  I  openly  reject  in  a  hundred 
places  or  more.  At  the  same  time,  I  do 
acknowledge  this  as  my  doctrine,  that 
not  merely  by  the  permission  of  God,  but 
by  his  secret  counsel  also,  Adam  fell,  and 
in  his  fall,  dragged  down  all  his  descend- 
ants into  everlasting  perdition.  Both  as- 
sertions, as  I  perceive,  are  offensive  to 
you,  as  repugnant  at  once  to  nature  and 
Sci'ipture.  Your  argument  from  nature, 
is  founded  on  the  love  which  every  ani- 
mal naturally  feels  towards  its  own  off- 
spring. You  hence  infer,  that  God  w^ho 
has  inspired  even  brute  beasts  with  this 
affection  must  love  men  no  less,  since 
they  are  his  offspring.  But  it  is  too  gross 
to  insist  on  findinsf  in  God  the  author  of 

o 

nature,  whatever  you  discern  in  the  ox, 
and  the  ass  ;  as  if  God  were  bound  by 
the  very  same  laws  which  he  has  given 
to  his  creatures.  To  secure  the  continu- 
ance of  every  race  of  animals,  God  has 
endowed  each  with  the  appetite  of  gene- 
rating offspring.     Now  expostulate  with 


PROVIDENCE.  *  19 

him,  why  from  all  eternity  content  with 
himself  alone,  he  kept  his  energy,  as  it 
were,  barren.  Undoubted ly  he  must  be 
always  like  himself.  If  then,  you  may 
be  judge,  he  violated  the  order  of  nature, 
so  long  as  he  chose  rather  to  be  without 
offspring,  than  to  put  forth  his  productive 
power.  Besides,  while  beasts  fight  even 
to  death,  in  behalf  of  their  young,  how 
comes  it  that  God  allows  little  infants  ta 
be  torn  and  devoured  by  tigers,  or  bears, 
or  lions,  or  wolves  ?  Is  it  because  his 
arm  is  too  short  to  reach  forth  protection 
to  his  own  ?  You  perceive  how  wide  a 
field  is  open  to  me,  if  I  cared  about  ex- 
posing your  follies ;  but  this  alone  is 
enough  for  me,  that  there  are  evidences 
of  God's  love,  toward  the  whole  human 
race,  sufficient  to  convict  all  who  perish, 
of  ingratitude.  Nor  yet  is  this  inconsist- 
ent with  that  peculiar  love  which  he  re- 
stricts to  the  lew,  whom  he  is  pleased  to 
select  among  many.  Certainly  he  openly 
declared,  by  his  ancient  adoption  of  the 
family  of  Abraham,  that  he  by  no  means 
embraces  the  whole  human  family,  with 
equal  regard.  So  by  rejecting  Esau, 
and  pieferring  his  younger  brother  Jacob, 


20  ONSECRET 

he  gave  an  illustrious  proof  of  that  free 
favour,  which  he  bestows  only  on  whom 
he  pleases.  Moses  proclaims  that  one 
nation  had  been  chosen  by  God  to  the 
rejection  of  all  the  rest.  The  prophets 
every  where  affirm,  that  the  only  reason 
of  the  superiority  of  the  Jews,  was  the 
unmerited  favour  of  God.  Will  you 
deny  him  to  be  God  ;  because  in  this 
you  discover  no  resemblance  to  a  tiger 
or  a  bear  ?  It  was  not  in  vain  that  Christ 
addressing  the  little  flock  (and  not  the 
human  race,  nor  even  indiscriminately 
the  Jewish  nation)  said,  "  fear  not,  it  has 
pleased  the  Father  to  give  you  the  king- 
dom ;"  because  none  but  those  whom  he 
reconciles  to  himself,  in  his  Only  Begot- 
ten Son,  experience  his  paternal  love,  in 
the  hope  ^of  eternal  life.  Now^,  if  you 
mean  to  subject  God  to  the  laws  of  na- 
ture, you  will  accuse  him  of  injustice,  in 
condemning  us  all  to  the  penalty  of  eter- 
nal death,  on  account  of  the  sin  of  one. 
One  sinned,  all  are  dragged  to  punish- 
ment ;  and  not  only  so,  but  from  the 
crime  of  one  they  all  contract  contagion, 
and  are  born  corrupted  and  tainted  with 
a  mortal  malady.     Worthy  Critic !  what 


PROVIDENCE.  21 

have  you  to  say  to  this  ?  Will  you  con- 
demn God  as  cruel,  because  he  has  pre- 
cipitated all  his  offspring  into  ruin,  for 
the  fault  of  one  man  ?  For  though  Adam 
destroyed  himself  and  his  descendants, 
yet  we  must  ascribe  the  corruption  and 
the  guilt,  to  the  secret  determination  of 
God  ;  because,  the  sin  of  one  man  were 
nothing  to  us,  if  the  Celestial  Judge  did 
not  doom  us  to  eternal  ruin  on  account 
of  it. 

And  observe,  how  skilfully  you  quote 
a  passage  of  Isaiah  to  gloze  your  error. 
Whereas  it  seemed  incredible,  that  the 
Church  of  God,  which  in  Babylonish 
captivity,  not  only  was  deprived  of  her 
children,  but  had  become  barren,  should, 
with  renovated  vigour,  be  more  fruitful 
than  before  ;  God  speaks  thus  :  "  Shall 
not  I,  by  whose  strength  women  bring 
forth,  be  able  also  to  produce  offspring?" 
Under  this  pretext,  you  compel  God  to 
assume  all  the  properties  of  the  brutes. 
You  audaciously  argue,  because  God 
makes  animals  love  their  offspring,  that 
he  too  must  love  his  offspring.  Though 
this  were  admitted,  it  would  not  follow 
that  he  loves  them  in  the  same  way.  Be- 
2 


22  ON    SECRET 

sides,  this  does  not  prove,  that  he  may 
not  as  a  juot  Judge  reject  those,  whom, 
as  the  best  of  Fathers,  he  folio  vvs  with 
affection  and  indulo^ence. 

Again,  you  object  that  creation  is  a 
work  of  love,  not  of  hatred  ;  that  conse- 
quently God  creates  from  love,  and  not 
from  hatred.  But  you  do  not  distinguish, 
that  though  all  are  odious  to  God  in 
Adam,  yet  his  love  shines  in  creation. 
Therefore,  any  one  endov/ed  with  mod- 
erate judgment,  and  candour,  will  ac- 
knowledge the  frivolity  of  that  which  you 
fancy  so  plausible.  What  follows,  it  is 
not  so  much  for  me  to  refute  with  my 
pen,  as  for  the  magistrate  severely  to 
punish  by  the  sword.  Shall  it  be  imputed 
to  my  books,  that  men  are  unde'Mably 
born  to  misery  ?  How  comes  it  that  we 
are  exppsed  fipl  n>erely  to  temporal  mise- 
ries/ bijt  al^o  to  eternal  death,  if  not  be- 
'  cause  God  has  cast  us  mto  a  common 
condemnation,  on  account  of  the  sin  of 
one  man.  In  this  miserable  ruin  of  the 
human  race,  it  is  not  my  opinion  that  is 
read,  but  God's  manifest  work  that  is 
beheld.  You,  with  no  misgiving,  vomit 
the  impious  declaration,  that  God  is  worse 


PROVIDENCE.  23 

than  any  wolf,  if  he  resolves  to  create 
men  for  misery.  Some  are  born  blind, 
others  deaf,  and  some  are  prodigiously 
deformed.  If  you,  indeed,  may  be  judge, 
God  is  cruel  in  afflicting  his  offspring 
with  such  disadvantages  before  they 
come  into  light.  But  by-and-bye  you 
shall  feel,  how  much  better  it  had  been 
for  you,  never  to  have  seen  at  all,  than 
to  have  been  so  perspicacious  in  discus- 
sing the  secrets  of  God.  You,  forsooth, 
accuse  God  of  injustice,  nay  call  him  a 
monster,  if  he  manage  the  human  race, 
in  a  manner  different  from  what  we  do 
our  children.  Why  then  does  he  create 
some  dull,  others  stupid,  and  others 
idiots  ?  As  some  of  the  Jews  fables  of 
the  fauns  and  satyrs  being  unfinished, 
because  their  IMaker  was  cut  short  by 
the  Sabbath,  will  you  be  so  absurd  as  to 
maintain  that  such  persons  slipped  in- 
complete out  of  the  hands  of  God  ?  Such 
sad  sights  should  rather  teach  us  reve- 
rence and  modesty,  than  produce  a  debate 
out  of  our  brains  with  the  Maker  of 
heaven  and  earth.  If  I  meet  an  idiot,  I 
am  admonished  by  the  sight,  what  God 
might  have  created  me.     As  many  as 


24  0N6ECRET 

are  stupid  and  dull,  just  so  many  minors 
does  God  present,  in  which  I  may  behold 
a  power,  no  less  awful  than  wonderful. 
But  you  allow  yourself  to  rail  at  him  as 
worse,  than  a  wolf,  for  consulting  so  ill 
for  his  creatures. 

True,  Christ  declares,  that  God  who 
is  good,  acts  more  kindly  towards  his 
sons,  than  men  who  are  evil ;  but  before 
you  can  turn  this  to  your  purpose,  you 
must  prove,  that  all  are  equally  the  sons 
of  God.  Now,  it  is  clear,  that  all  lost 
eternal  life  in  Adam ;  whereas  the  grace 
of  adoption  is  special.  Whence,  it  will 
rather  follow,  that  so  many  as  are  alien- 
ated from  God,  are  abhorred  by  him. 
Your  texts,  are  darts  hurled  at  random, 
by  the  hand  of  a  madman.  God  saw  the 
things  which  he  had  made,  and  they 
were  very  good ;  hence  you  infer  that 
man  was  very  good ;  and  again  conclude, 
that  God  was  unjust  if  he  created  a  good 
being  for  destruction. 

The  nature  of  man's  original  rectitude 
I  have  sufficiently  expounded,  and  more 
than  sufficiently,  in  many  passages. 
Doubtless  he  was  not  better  than  the 
devil,  before  he  had  fallen  from  his  in- 


PROVIDENCE.  25 

tegrity.  Now  were  1  to  grant  3^ou,  that 
man,  as  well  as  apostate  angels,  was 
created  for  happiness ;  and  yet  maintain, 
that  in  respect  of  future  defection,  they 
were  destined  to  destruction ,;  what  will 
you  make  of  it  ?  For,  undoubtedly,  God 
knew  what  would  happen  to  l>oth  ;  and 
what  he  himself  would  do^the  at  the  same 
time  decreed.  As  to  permission,  we  shall 
consider  it  afterwards  in  its  own  place. 
But  now  if  you  object  that  the  foreknowl- 
edge of  God,  is  not  the  cause  of  evil,  I 
would  only  demand  of  you,  if  God  iore- 
saw  the  fall,  both  of  the  devil  and  of  man 
before  creation,  why  did  he  not  by  sl 
timely  precaution  prevent  their  proneness 
to  fall?  From  the  beginning  of  the  world, 
the  devil  forthwith  alienated  himself  from 
the  hope  of  salvation  ;  man  as  soon  as 
created,  overwhelmed  himself  and  pos- 
terity in  fatal  ruin.  If  their  perseverance 
was  in  the  hand  of  God,  why  did  he  suf- 
fer them  to  fall  ?  Nay  why  was  neither 
furnished  w^ith  even  a  moderate  degree 
of  constancy  ?  Turn  as  you  will,  I  will 
hold  this  principle,  that  however  Vv^eak 
and  liable  to  fall,  man  might  be  created, 
this  weakness  was  very  good ;  because 
2* 


S6  ON    SECRET 

I  his  ruin  was  so  soon  to  show  that  out  of 
'  God,  there  was  no  strength,  no  stabiUty. 
Whence  it  is  also  evident,  that  your 
prating  about  men  being  made  for  hap- 
piness, is  lame  and  thoughtless  assertion. 
For  though  I  acknowledge  that  there  was 
nothing  in  man  contrary  to  salvation,  I 
prove  that  happiness  was  not  predesti- 
nated for  all  in  the  secret  council  of  God. 
I  I  will  briefly  repeat  the  same  thing  in 
\  other  words.  If  the  natural  completeness, 
with  which  man  was  endowed  at  his  first 
creation,  be  alone  considered,  then  he 
was  made  for  happiness,  inasmuch  as  no 
cause  of  death  will  there  be  found.  If 
on  the  other  hand  we  inquire  concerning 
secret  predestination,  we  come  upon 
that  deep  abyss,  which  should  call  forth 
instant  admiration. 

Besides,  if  you  were  imbued  with  the 
slightest  relish  for  piety,  you  would 
readily  acknowledge  that  these  words 
"  all  things  were  very  good,"  were  not 
intended  to  express  their  perfection,  as 
if  the  Holy  Spirit  declared,  that  nothing 
was  wanting  to  the  excellence  of  any 
creature,  but  rather  to  cut  oflT  occasion  of 
railing  from  you,   and  those  like  you. 


PROVIDENCE.  27 

For,  however,  you  may  deny  that  it  was 
good  for  men  to  be  created  under  this 
law,  by  which  his  fall  was  immediately 
to  corrupt  the  whole  world,  yet  God  de- 
clares that  this  arrangement  was  pleasing 
to  himself,  and  therefore  most  upright. 
That  you  may  the  better  understand  the 
meaning  of  Moses,  he  is  not  asserting  how 
just  or  upright  man  was  ;  but  to  quell 
your  barking,  he  teaches  that  the  consti- 
tution established  by  God  in  regard  to 
man,  could  not  be  surpassed  in  rectitude. 
Accordingly,  although  in  speaking  of 
each  of  God's  works,  he  declares  that 
God  saw  what  he  had  made,  and  they 
were  every  one  good,  he  does  not  affirm 
any  such  thing  of  man  in  particular ;  but 
to  the  narrative  of  his  creation,  he  only 
adds  in  general,  "  w^hatever  God  made 
was  very  good,"  under  which  declara- 
tion, it  is  unquestionable,  we  must  com- 
prehend what  Solomon  teaches,  that  the 
wicked  are  created  for  the  day  of  evil. 
The  sum  is  ;  though  man  by  nature  was 
good,  this  rectitude,  which  was  frail  and 
fading,  was  not  inconsistent  with  the  di- 
vine predestination,  which  doomed  him 
to  perish  for  his  own  sin,  who,  consider- 


ON    SECRET 


ing  merely  the  purity  of  his  nature,  nay 
the  excellence  with  which  he  was  adorn- 
ed, had  been  created  for  happiness.  And 
therefore  you  falsely  and  foolishly  infer 
that  he  was  created  to  perish  though 
good  ;  when  it  is  manifest  he  fell  by  his 
own  infirmity,  and  did  not  perish  till  he 
became  obnoxious  to  a  just  condemna- 
tion.- That  these  two  things  are  mutually 
harmonious,  we  shall  see  more  clearly 
by-and-bye.  You  object  that  God  does 
not  desire  the  death  of  the  sinner.  But 
mark  what  follows  in  the  prophet,  ih6 
invitation  -of  all  to  repentance.  Pardon, 
therefore,  is  offered  to  all  who  return. 
Now  we  must  ascertain,  whether  the 
conversion  which  God  requires,  depends 
on  every  man's  free  will,  or  whether  it  is 
the  special  gift  of  God.  In  so  far  then, 
as  all  are  invited  to  repent,  the  prophet 
properly  denies  that  the  death  of  the  sin- 
ner is  desired.  But  the  reason  why  he 
does  not  convert  all,  is  hid  with  himself. 
Your  hacknied  quotation  from  Paul, 
that  God  would  have  all  men  saved,  I 
have,  in  my  judgment,  elsewhere  suffi- 
ciently shown,  lends  no  countenance  to 
your  error.     For  it  is  moie  certain  than 


PRO  VID  KNCB.  29 

certainty  itself,  that  Paul  is  not  there 
speaking  of  individuals,  but  refers  to  or- 
ders and  classes  of  employments.  He 
had  been  enjoining  prayers,  in  behalf  of 
kings  and  other  governors,  and  all  who 
exercised  the  office  of  magistrate.  But 
inasm.uch  as  all  who  then  bore  the  sword, 
were  the  professed  enemies  of  the  church, 
it  might  seem  absurd  that  the  church 
should  pray  for  their  salvation.  To  ob- 
viate the  difficulty  Paul  extends  the  grace 
of  God  even  to  them. 

There  is  perhaps  more  colour  in  the 
words  of  Peter,  that  "God  is  not  willing 
that  any  should  perish,  but  that  all  should 
come  to  repentance;"  if,  however,  there 
is  any  ambiguity  in  the  former  clause,  it 
is  removed  by  the  explanation,  which  is  im- 
mediately subjoined.  Certainly  in  so  far  as 
God  would  receive  all  to  repentance,  he 
would  have  no  one  perish.  But  in  order 
to  be  received  they  must  come.  Now,  the 
Spirit  every  where  proclaims,  that  divine 
grace  first  comes  to  men,  who  till  they 
are  drawn  remain  the  willing  slaves  of 
carnal  contumacy.  If  you  had  the 
smallest  judgment  remaining,  would  you 
not  perceive  the  wide  difference  between 


so  ONSECRET 

these  two :  that  the  stony  hearts  of  men, 
become  hearts  of  flesh,  so  as  to  lose  all 
self-complacency,  and  suppliantly  entreat 
for  pardon ;  then,  when  they  are  thus 
changed,  that  pardon  is  received.  God 
declares  that  both  these  are  the  gifts  of 
his  kindness,  the  new  heart  for  repent- 
ance, and  the  gracious  pardon  of  the 
suppliants.  Unless  God  were  ready  to 
receive  all  who  truly  implore  his  mercy, 
he  would  not  say,  "  return  unto  me,  and 
I  will  return  unto  you."  But  if  repent- 
ance were  the  effect  of  the  will  of  man, 
Paul  would  not  say,  '*  if  peradventure 
God  m<ij  give  them  lepentance."  Nay, 
unless  the  same  God,  who  with  his  own 
voice  calls  all  to  repentance,  drew  his 
elect  by  the  secret  influences  of  his  Spirit, 
Jeremiah  would  not  say,  "  Turn  me.  Oh 
Lord,  and  I  shall  be  turned  ;  for  when 
thou  turnedst  me,  I  repented." 

If  any  modesty  could  be  looked  for  in 
a  dog,  this  solution  should  have  been  fa- 
mihar  to  you  from  my  writings,  as  a 
thing  ten  times  repeated.  But  even  re- 
ject it  if  you  will,  you  will  3^et  derive  no 
more  countenance  from  Paul,  than  frqm 
Ezekiel.  There  is  no  occasion  for  anjaou§* 


PROVIDENCE.  31 

debate,  regarding  the  mode  in  which  God 
would  have  all  men  saved  ;  for  these  two 
things  salvation  and  the  knowledge  of 
the  truth,  are  not  to  be  separated.  Now 
answer !  If  God  determined  to  make 
known  his  truth  to  all,  why  since  the 
time  that  the  Gospel  began  to  be  pro- 
claimed, are  there  so  many  nations  that 
his  pure  truth  never  reached  ?  Besides, 
why  has  he  not  equally  opened  the  eyes 
of  all,  when  the  interior  illumination  of 
the  Spirit,  vouchsafed  but  to  few,  is  ne- 
cessary to  faith  ?  This  knot  also  you 
have  to  untie.  As  no  one  comes  to  God, 
except  he  who  is  drawn  by  the  secret 
influence  of  his  Sp*irit,  why  are  not  all 
indiscriminately  draAvn,  if  he  is  deter- 
mined that  all  should  be  saved  ?  For 
the  discrimination  demonstrates,  that 
there  is  some  secret  way,  in  which  he 
excludes  many  from  salvation. 

How  it  is  that  the  mercy  of  God  reaches 
to  the  thousandth  generation,  you  will 
never  peiceive  while  you  are  blinded  by 
the  pride  which  puffs  you  up.  For  there 
is  no  promise  of  such  a  mercy,  as  was  to 
abolish  utterly  the  curse,  with  which  the 
whole  progeny  of  Adam  wa^.  overwhelm- 


32  ON    SECRET 

ed  ;  but  the  mercy  promised,  was  to 
make  its  way  forever  to  the  unworthy, 
in  spite  of  all  the  obstacles  which  might 
oppose.  Thus  God  passed  by  many  sons 
of  Abraham  when  he  chose  Isaac  alone. 
So  when  Isaac  had  begotten  twins,  the 
same  God  determined  that  his  mercy 
should  rest  only  on  Jacob,  Yet  though 
God  gives  proof  of  his  anger  against 
many,  still  this  remains  undeniable,  that 
he  is  inclined  to  goodness,  slow  to  anger ; 
because  in  the  long  suffering  with  which 
he  tolerates  the  reprobate,  there  is  no 
obscure  display  of  his  goodness. 

Now  observe  how  your  frivolous  quib- 
bles entangle  yourself  while  I  escape 
with  such  ease.  ..That  the  mercy  of 
God  may  exceed  his  anger,  you  insist 
that  more  must  be  chosen  to  salvation 
than  destruction ;  now  though  I  were  to 
grant  this,  yet  God  will  be  unjust  to  those 
few,  if  your  calumnies  may  be  believed. 
If  he  do  not  love  his  offspring  you  pro- 
nounce him  worse  than  a  wolf".  If  then 
there  is  but  one  against  whom  he  exer- 
cises his  anger,  how  will  he  escape  the 
charge  of  cruelty  ?  Nor  may  you  object, 
that  the  causes  of  anger  are  in  men  them- 


PROVIDENCE.  ^^ 

selves  ;  because  comparing  anger  with 
mercy,  you  contend  merely  concerning 
relative  extent;  as  if  by  choosing  more  to 
salvation,  God  might  prove  himself  mer- 
ciful. Whereas  God  commends  his  love 
toward  us  in  a  totally  different  way,  viz.  on 
the  one  hand,  by  pardoning  so  many,  and 
so  various  offences,  and  on  the  other  by 
contending  with  the  obstinate  malice  of 
men,  till  it  come  to  its  height. 


Article  Second. 
God  not  only  predestimated  to  damnation; 
but  he  also  predestinated  Adam  to  the 
causes  of  damnation ;  whose  fall  he  not 
only  foresaw,  hut  determined  from  eter- 
nity, by  a  secret  decree,  and  ordained 
that  he  shoiddfall.  And  that  this  might 
come  to  pass  in  his  time,  he  set  forth  the 
apple  the  cause  of  the  fall. 

Against  the  Second, 

They  say  that  the  second  too  is  a  doctrine  of  the  devil, 
and  they  demand  of  us,  Calvin,  to  show  where  it  is 
written  in  the  word  of  God. 

J.  Calvin^ s  Reply, 

In  the  second  article  you  are  the  same 
man  still.    Produce  the  passage  from  my 
3 


34  ONSECRET 

writings,  where  I  teach  that  the  apple 
was  set  before  Adam  to  cause  his  fall. 
This  to  be  sure  is  one  of  your  popular 
arts,  to  darken  the  minds  of  the  simple 
with  lies,  lest  they  should  rise  to  the 
truth,  which  is  remote  from  common 
carnal  sense.  But  lest  I  should  seem  to 
dispute  about  words,  I  acknowledge  that 
I  wrote  thus  ;  that  the  fall  of  Adam  was 
not  a  matter  of  chance,  but  ordained  in 
the  secret  counsel  of  God.  In  simply 
denouncing  this  a  doctrine  of  the  devil, 
you  must  no  doubt  fancy  yourself  a  judge 
of  no  mean  authority ;  otherwise,  you 
could  not  expect  to  overturn  with  one 
abusive  assertion,  a  point  which  I  have 
established  by  powerful  arguments.  You 
demand  a  testimony  from  Scripture,  to 
demonstrate,  that  Adam  did  not  fall, 
without  the  secret  decree  of  God. 
Whereas,  if  you  had  only  read  a  few 
pages  with  attention,  you  could  not  help 
seeing,  w^hat  is  every  where  obvious,  that 
God  manaoes  all  thins^s  accordinsf  to  his 

o  o  o 

secret  counsel.  You  fancy  a  foreknow- 
ledge in  God,  which  sluggishly  beholds 
from  heaven  the  life  of  man  :  God  him- 
self laying  his  hand  on  the  helm  of  the 


PROVIDENCE.  35 

universe,  does  not  allow  his  power  to  be 
separated  from  his  foreknowledge.  Cer- 
tainly this  reasoning  belongs  to  Augustine, 
not  to  me.  If  God  foresaw  what  he  was 
unwiUing  should  happen,  then  he  is  not 
supreme.  Therefore  he  determined  what- 
ever should  be,  because  independently 
of  his  will,  nothing  could  be.  If  you 
reckon  this  absurd,  yet  you  cannot  es- 
cape it  even  with  your  fancy  ;  because 
he  ought  to  have  at  least  applied  to  the 
mischief,  the  remedy  within  his  own 
power,  though  it  is  clear  he  did  not  do  so. 
God  foresaw  the  fall  of  Adam.  He  had 
the  power  of  preventing  it.  He  was  not 
willing  to  prevent  it.  Why  he  was  un- 
willing no  reason  can  be  given,  except 
that  his  will  took  the  opposite  direction. 
If  you  allow  yourself  to  contend  with 
God,  accuse  him  too,  of  fitting  man  for 
ruin,  by  the  weakness  in  which  he 
created  him.  You  say  that  Adam  fell 
by  free  will.  I  reply  that  to  keep  him 
from  falling,  he  needed  that  constancy 
and  fortitude,  with  which  God  endows 
his  elect,  when  he  determines  that  they 
shall  hold  fast  their  integrity.  Sure  it  is, 
unless   new  strength   is   supplied   from 


36  ONSECRET 

heaven  every  moment,  we  are  frail 
enough  to  perish  a  thousand  times.  God 
supports  those  whom  he  has  chosen,  and 
they  persevere  with  invincible  fortitude. 
Why  should  he  not  have  supplied  Adam 
with  this,  if  he  willed  him  to  stand  un- 
hurt. Surely  we  must  here  be  silent,  or 
confess  with  Solomon  that  God  made  all 
things  for  himself;  even  the  wicked  for 
the  day  of  evil.  If  the  absurdity  offend 
you,  think  that  is  no  vain  repetition,  which 
declares  the  judgments  of  God  to  be  a 
great  deep.  If  the  incomprehensible  coun- 
sel of  God,  could  be  contained  in  the  little 
measure  of  our  capacity,  it  was  in  vain 
that  Moses  proclaimed,  that  the  revelations 
of  the  Law  were  for  us,  and  our  children, 
while  his  secret  things  belonged  to  himself. 
You  demand  a  quotation  proving  that 
God  did  not  prevent  the  fall  of  Adam,  be- 
cause he  was  unwilling  ;  as  if  indeed  the 
memorable  answer  did  not  sufficiently 
prove  it,  "  I  will  have  mercy  on  whom  I 
will  have  mercy."  Whence  Paul  infers 
that  he  hath  not  mercy  on  all  because  he 
doth  not  choose.  And  doubtless  without 
any  commentator  at  all,  the  words  plain- 
ly tell  us,  that  God  is  bound  by  no  law, 


PROVIDENCE.  37 

to  show  indiscriminate  mercy  to  all :  but 
that  he  is  his  own  Arbiter  in  pardoning 
whom  he  pleases,  and  passing  by  others. 
Surely  it  was  the  same  God,  of  whom  the 
prophet  asserts  "  he  doeth  according  to 
his  will."  Now  if  you  say  that  he  un- 
willingly yielded,  when  Adam  fell,  you 
must  suppose  that  Satan  was  victorious 
in  the  contest,  and  like  the  Manicheans, 
you  will  have  two  principles.  Paul  too 
handhng  this  subject,  does  not  rashly 
compare  God  to  the  potter,  who  was  at 
liberty  out  of  the  same  mass,  to  make 
whatever  variety  of  vessels  he  thought 
proper.  The  Apostle  certainly  might 
have  begun  at  sin  ;  though  he  does  not, 
but  defends  the  unconstrained  right  and 
sovereignty  of  God,  in  the  work  itself. 
And  when  he  adds  that  all  had  been  shut 
up  in  unbelief,  does  he  teach  that  this  hap- 
pened in  spite  of  God,  or  rather  that  God 
was  the  author  of  it  ?  If  you  object  that 
all  were  condemned  for  unbelief,  merely 
because  they  deserved  it,  the  context  is 
against  you,  because  Paul  is  discoursing 
of  the  secret  judgments  of  God;  and  the 
exclamation,  "  oh  the  depth,"  &c.,  is  in- 
consistent with  such  a  supposition. 
3* 


38  ONSECRET 

Therefore  as  Christ  was  predestinated 
from  the  beginning  to  succour  the  lost,  so 
God  determined  in  his  own  incompre- 
hensible counsel,  how  he  was  to  illustrate 
his  own  glory,  by  the  fall  of  Adam.  I 
acknowledge,  indeed,  when  he  vindicates 
the  free  course  of  his  mercy,  he  speaks 
of  the  human  race,  as  it  had  already 
perished  in  Adam  ;  but  the  same  reason 
was  always  valid  before  the  fall  of  Adam, 
that  his  own  will,  is  to  him  a  sufficient 
ground  of  mercy,  when  such  is  his  plea- 
sure. This  will,  moreover,  though  it 
depends  on  nothing  else,  and  has  no 
prior  cause,  is  yet  founded  in  the  best 
reason,  and  the  highest  equity.  For 
though  the  license  of  man  requires  the 
bridle  of  the  Law,  it  is  otherwise  with 
God,  who  is  a  law  to  himself,  and 
whose  will  is  the  rule  of  the  most  perfect 
rio:hteousness. 


Article  Third. 

The  sins  which  are  committed^  are  committed 
not  only  by  the  permission,  hut  also  by  the 


PROVIDENCE.  39 

will  of  God.  Fo7'  it  is  frivolous  to  make 
a  distinction  between  the  permission  and  the 
ivill  of  God,  so  far  as  sin  is  concerned. 
Those  icho  do  so  wish  to  gain  God's  fa- 
vour by  comi)liments  and  adulation. 

Against  the  Third. 

Against  the  third,  concerning  the  difference  between 
will  and  jJerniission,  they  allege  this.  Calvin  says,  that 
he  is  a  prophet  of  God  ;  and  we  say  that  Calvin  is  a 
prophet  of  the  devil.  Now,  one  of  us  must  be  saying 
what  is  false.  For  if  he  is  a  prophet  of  God,  we  lie  ; 
but  if  he  is  a  prophet  of  the  devil,  he  hinisetfiies,  in  say- 
ing that  he  is  a  prophet  of  God.  But  if  both  these  are 
by  the  w.ll  of  God  ;  that  is,  if  God  will  that  Calvin  should 
say,  he  is  a  prophet  of  God,  and  that  we  should  say,  he 
is  the  prophet  of  the  devil,  he  wills  incompatible  things  ; 
which  is  impossible.  F.pr.H'God  will  a  lie,  he  does  not 
will  truth,  or  jf  he  will  trutTf  Tie^does  not  Will  a  lie. 
Whence  it  follows,  if  he  wishes  one  party  to  speak  truth, 
he  is  unwilling  that  the  other  should  lie.  But  one  or 
other  of  the  parties  undoubtedly  lies,  it  lies,  therefore, 
not  by  the  will,  but  by  the  permission  of  God.  There  is 
then  a  difference  even  in  God  between  permission  and 
volition. 

They  also  bring  forward  many  clear  examples,  of  the 
difference  between  volition  and  permission;  especially 
from  the  twentieth  chapter  of  Ezekiel,  where  God  after 
largely  upbraiding  his  people  for  their  nnwiUingness  to 
obey  his  precepts,  at  last  concludes  thus;  go  ye,  serve 
every  one  his  filthy  god,  since  ye  obey  not  me.  As  if 
he  said  this,  I  permit  you  to  follow  your  own  lust,  since 
ye  will  not  obey  xny  precepts.  And  this  seems  to  be  the 
same,  as  he  had  spoken  before  in  the  same  chapter ; 
"  As  they  rejected  my  laws,  I  delivered  to  them  precepts 
not  good."  Now  God  did  not  give  the  Israelites  precepts 


40  ONSECRET 

that  were  not  good ;  for  all  God's  precepts  are  good. 
But  because  they  rejected  God's  good  piecepts,  he  de- 
serted them ;  and  they,  deserted  by  God  fell  into  bad 
precepts ;  just  as  the  prodigal  son,  when  deserted  by  his 
father,  or  rather  when  his  father  was  deserted,  ieW  into 
wantonness ;  and  as  Paul  teaches,  because  men  did  not 
love  the  truth,  God  sent  them  a  spirit  of  error  to  believe 
a  lie. 

Such  seems  to  be  the  import  also,  of  that  passage  in 
the  fourth  chapter  of  Amos,  ''Go  to  Bethel  and  sin, 
since  ye  love  to  do  it."  So  now,  as  men  are  unwilling  to 
obey  God,  who  declares  that  he  does  not  will  sin,  God 
has  permitted  spirits  of  error  to  exist,  who  teach  that 
God  wills  sin ;  that  those  who  are  unwilling  to  obey  the 
truth,  may  obey  a  lie. 

They  also  bring  forward  the  passage  from  Zechariah, 
where  God  declares  himself  angry  with  the  nations  that 
were  at  rest;  because  when  he  was  slightly  incensed 
against  the  Israelites,  the  heathens  aggravated  the  pun- 
ishment; that  is,  they  more  grievously  vexed  the  Israel- 
ites, than  the  anger  of  God  could  tolerate;  therefore,  it 
was  by  the  permission,  not  by  the  will  of  God. 

They  adduce  a  similar  instance  from  the  Prophet 
Obadiah,  who  reproves  the  Israelites,  for  afflicting  the 
Jews,  more  grievously  than  the  anger  of  God  demanded. 
They  also  refer  to  the  example  of  the  prodigal  son, 
which  I  have  already  touched.  If  you  say  that  he  ran 
his  vicious  course  by  the  will  of  his  flither;  it  were  most 
absurd;  it  was  then  by  his  permission.  So,  the  guilty, 
they  say,  are  tlie  prodigal  children  of  God,  and  sin  by 
the  permission,  not  by  the  will  of  God.  Also  ti.at  say- 
ing of  Christ,  "  Will  ye  aUo  go  away?"  Certainly  he 
was  unwilling  that  they  should  go  away,  but  he  permit- 
ted it.  Finally  they  appeal  to  common  sense,  which 
dictates  a  difference  between  volition  and  permission ; 
according  to  which  common  sense,  Christ  was  accus- 
tomed to  teach  divine  things,  aod  which  if  you  subvert, 
all  the  parables  of  Christ  must  perish,  because  common 
sense  alone  can  judge  of  them. 


PROVIDENCE,  41 

J.  Calvhi's  Reply. 

The  third  article  no  less  than  the 
others,  betrays  your  extreme  fondness, 
for  foetid  calumnies.  If  you  will  attack 
m}'  doctrine,  why  not  at  least  show  can- 
dour enough  to  quote  my  own  language. 
In  our  present  discussion,  I  maintain  the 
distinction  between  permission  and  voli- 
tion to  be  frivolous.  You  oppose  what 
you  fancy  a  witty  subtlety,  but  what  is 
really  a  silly  sophism,  viz. :  If  God  wills 
all  things,  he  wills  incompatible  things, 
inasmuch  as  you  call  me  a  prophet  of  the 
devil,  while  I  affirm  myself  to  be  a  faithful 
servant  of  God.  This  apparent  inconsist- 
ency, indeed,  dazzles  your  eyes ;  but  truly, 
God  himself,  who  knows  well  how  at  once 
to  will,  and  not  to  will  the  same  thing,  is  not 
concerned  about  your  dimness  of  sight. 
Whenever  God  raised  up  true  prophets,  he 
certainly  willed,  that  they  should  actively 
and  strenuously  contend,  in  maintaining 
the  doctrine  of  his  law ;  false  prophets 
arose  who  laboured  to  subvert  that  doc- 
trine :  there  must  be  a  conffict  betwixt 
them;  but  God  did  not  conflict  with 
himself  when  he  raised  up  both.     You 


42  ONSECRET 

here  thrust  the  divine  toleration  in  my 
face  ;  while  he  openly  proclaims  (Deut. 
xiii.  1,)  that  no  false  prophets  arise, 
whom  he  does  not  ordain,  either  to  try 
the  faith  of  his  own,  or  to  blind  the  unbe- 
lieving. "  If  a  false  prophet  shall  arise 
among  you,"  says  Moses,  "your  God  tries 
you."  You,  by  a  most  impertinent  com- 
mentary, transfer  to  a  totalty  different 
quarter,  what  Moses  ascribes,  not  rashly 
to  God.  Either  deny  that  it  is  the  pre- 
rogative of  God  to  examine  the  hearts  of 
his  people,  or  yield  at  length  to  the  clear 
and  indubitable  truth,  that  false  prophets, 
are  God's  instruments  in  that  examina- 
tion of  which  he  chooses  to  be  recognised 
as  the  author. 

Ezekiel  (xiv.  9,)  is  still  clearer;  "if  a 
deceived  prophet  has  brought  forth  any- 
thing, I,  God  have  deceived  that  prophet, 
and  my  hand  is  upon  him."  You  enjoin 
us  to  be  content  with  mere  permission. 
God  declares  his  own  will  and  hand  to 
be  at  work.  Now  mark,  which  witness 
is  better  entitled  to  belief:  God  speak- 
ing of  himself  by  his  Spirit,  the  only  foun- 
tain of  wisdom,  or  you  prating  of  his 
unknown  m3^steries,  according  to  your 


PROVIDENCE.  43 

carnal  silly  apprehension.  What?  When 
God  calls  Satan  as  the  executioner  of  his 
vengeance,  and  openly  commissions  him 
to  deceive,  does  this  differ  in  no  respect 
from  a  simple  permission  ?  The  voice 
of  God  (1  Kings  xxii.  20,  21,)  is  distinct 
enough ;  "who  for  us  v/ill  deceive  Ahab  ?" 
And  there  is  no  obscurity  in  the  com- 
mand given  to  Satan  ;  "  Go  and  be  a  ly- 
ing spirit  in  the  mouth  of  all  his  pro- 
phets." 

I  would  also  know  w^hether  doing  and 
permitting  are  the  same  thing.  Because 
David  had  secretly  abused  his  neigh- 
bour's wife,  God  (2  Sam.  xii.  11,)  de- 
clares, that  he  will  bring  it  about,  that 
his  wives  shall  be  dra2:2:ed  to  similar  in- 
famv,  in  the  sio;ht  of  the  sun.  He  does 
not  say  I  will  allow  it  to  be  done,  bat  I 
will  do  it.  You,  to  aid  him  w^ith  your 
hollow  help,  plead  permission  as  an 
apology.  David  himself  was  of  a  very 
different  mind,  who,  reflecting  on  the 
dreadful  judgment  of  God,  exclaims,  "I 
am  dumb  because  thotc  didst  it."  So 
also,  when  Job  blesses  God,  he  does  not 
merely  acknowledge  that  by  the  divine 
permission,  he  had  been  spoiled  by  the 


44  ONSECRET 

robbers,  but  distinctly  affirms  that  God 
had  taken  away  what  he  had  given. 

If  the  same  rule  hold  in  giving  and 
receiving,  then  by  your  authority,  wealth 
cannot  be  a  gift  of  God  ;  but  must  flow 
to  us  casually  by  the  divine  permission. 
Now,  though  3^ou,  with  your  corrupt 
crew,  cease  not  to  rail,  yet  God  will  jus- 
tify himself.  But  we  will  reverently 
adore  mysteries,  which  far  transcend  our 
comprehension,  till  a  full  knowledge  of 
them  shine  forth,  when,  face  to  face,  we 
shall  behold  Him  who  now  can  be  dis- 
cerned only  as  in  a  glass.  Then,  says 
Augustine,  shall  be  seen  in  the  clearest 
light  of  wisdom,  what  the  faith  of  the 
pious  holds,  how  certain,  and  immutable, 
and  most  efficacious  is  the  will  of  God, 
how  many  things  it  could  do,  but  chooses 
not,  while  it  chooses  nothing,  to  which  it 
is  unequal.  But  from  the  lips  of  the 
same  pious  writer,  I  answer  you  on  the 
point  in  hand.  "  These  are  the  great 
works  of  the  Lord,  immaculate  in  respect 
of  all  his  volitions,  and  so  wisely  im- 
maculate, that  when  the  angelic  and  hu- 
man creature  had  sinned,  that  is,  had 
done  not  what  he,  but  what  itself  willed, 


PROVIDENCE.  45 

even  by  that  same  volition  of  the  crea- 
ture, by  which  what  the  Creator  did  not 
will  was  done,  God  accomplished  his 
own  design  :  w^isely  empWing  like  one 
supremely  good,  even  evil,  for  the  dam- 
nation of  those,  whom  he  justly  predesti- 
nated to  punishment,  and  for  their  salva- 
tion whom  he  benignly  predestinated  to 
pardon.  For,  in  so  far  as  they  were  con- 
cerned, they  did  what  God  did  not  will; 
but  in  reference  to  the  Omnipotence  of 
God,  it  w^as  impossible  they  could  do 
this  ;  inasmuch,  as  by  this  very  acting 
against  God's  will,  his  will  concerning 
themselves,  was  perfoimed.  Therefoie, 
the  great  works  of  the  Lord,  are  imma- 
culate in  respect  of  all  his  volitions,  so 
that  in  a  wonderful  and  ineffable  way, 
even  that  which  is  against  his  will,  does 
not  happen  without  bis  will ;  because  it 
would  not  happen  if  he  did  not  allow  it ; 
nor  does  he  allow  it  unwillingly,  but 
willingly.  Nor,  as  good,  could  he  allow 
evil  to  be  done,  unless  as  Omnipotent  he 
could  bring  good  out  of  it." 

As  to  the  Scripture  examples  w^hich 
you  adduce,  they  are  just  as  much  to  the 
purpose,  as  mixing  wine  with  oil.     God, 
4 


46  ON    SECKET 

by  Ezekiel,  addressing  the  disobedient 
Jews,  says  ;  "  Go  ye,  serve  every  man 
idols."  I  acknowledge,  indeed,  that  this 
is  not  a  word  of  command,  but  of  rejec- 
tion of  the  impious  mixture  by  which 
the  Jews  adulterated  his  legitimate  wor- 
ship. But  what  more  will  3- on  infer-  from 
this,  except  that  God  sometimes  permits 
what  he  reprobates  and  condemns  ;  as 
if,  forsooth,  it  were  not  universally  agreed, 
that  in  such  forms  of  expression,  God 
sometimes  commands,  and  sometimes 
permits.  He  says,  in  the  law,  six  shaJt 
thou  work ;  it  is  a  concession  ;  for,  con- 
secrating to  himself  the  seventh  day,  he 
left  men  free  on  the  other  six.  In  another 
way  too  he  anciently  allowed  divorce  to 
the  Jews,  which  he  by  no  means  ap- 
proved. Here  he  indignantly  devotes 
the  h3^pocritical  and  perfidious  to  idols  ; 
because  he  would  not  have  his  name 
profaned.  But  how  comes  it  that  3^ou 
forget,  that  the  point  in  debate  is  the 
secret  Providence  of  God,  by  which  he 
destines  and  turns  all  the  agitations  of 
the  world,  to  his  own  purpose  according 
to  his  pleasure  ? 

Moreover,  by  corrupting  another  pas- 


PROVIDENCE.  47 

sage,  so  unskilfully  and  so  perversely,  you 
show  that  nothing  is  sacred  to  an  impious 
and  profane  man.  God's  words  are ; 
*'  because  they  were  unwilling  to  obey 
my  precepts,  I  gave  them  precepts  not 
good."  Here  you  trifle  by  telling  us, 
that  when  they  were  deserted  by  God, 
they  fell  into  idolatry.  Whereas,  there 
is  no  doubt  God  means  the  Jews  were 
bound  in  servitude  by  the  Chaldeans, 
who  compelled  them  to  obey  their 
tyrannical  laws.  Now"  the  question  -is, 
whether  God  merely  permitted  the  Jews 
to  be  haled  by  the  Chaldeans  into  exile ; 
or  whether  he  employed  them  as  his 
chosen  instruments  for  chastising  the 
sins  of  his  people.  Indeed,  if  you  still 
seek  a  pretext,  in  the  permission  of  God, 
all  the  prophets  must  be  consigned  to  the 
flames,  who  declare  at  one  time,  that 
Satan  is  sent  by  God  to  deceive ;  at 
another  that  the  Chaldeans,  or  Assyrians 
are  sent  to  ravage.  Again  they  tell  us 
that  the  same  God  hissed  for  the  Egyp- 
tians, when  about  to  employ  their  agency ; 
that  the  Assyrians  were  his  mercenaries  ; 
that  Nebuchadnezzar  was  his  servant  in 
spoiling  Egypt ;  and  that  the  Assyrians 


C..^/Mo^f-  ^A^^O^i 


48  ON    SECRET 

were  the  axe  in  his  hand,  and  the  rod  of 
his  anger,  in  the  destruction  of  Judea. 
Lest  I  should  be  tedious,  I  omit  innu- 
merable other  instances. 

You   are   guilty  of  not   less    drunken 
audacity,  when  you   pretend  that   God 
;   sends  a  spirit  of  error  to  the  unbelieving 
1  that  they  should   believe   a  lie,  merely, 
'  inasmuch,  as  he  allows  false  teachers  to 
exist.     When  3^ou  prate  in  this  way,  do 
you    suppose    that   your   readers  are  so 
blind   as   not  to  see,  a  totally  different 
\  meaning   in   Paul's  words,  "  God   sent 
I  strong  delusion  ?"     But  it  is  not  wonder- 
ful that  he  should  babble  thus  licentiously, 
who  either  supposes  there  are  no  divine 
judgments   at  all,   or  securely  despises 
the  very  meaning  of  the  word  judgment. 
For  no  one  of  sound  intellect  will  say, 
that  a  judge  does  nothing  when  he  inflicts 
punishment,  or  that  he  inefficiently  leaves 
to  others,  what  is  peculiar   to    his    own 
office. 

But  it  is  in  vain  that  you  strive  to 
alarm,  and  harass  me,  with  3^our  barking. 
You  allege  there  are  by  the  permission 
of  God,  erioneous  spirits  teaching  that 
God  wills  sin.     As   the   ver}'   same   re- 


PROVIDENCE.  49 

proach  was  cast  on  Paul,  b}^  men  of  your 
stamp,  there  is  no  reason  wh_y  I  should 
take  it  amiss,  to  be  associated  with  him. 
You  quote  from  Zechariah,  that  God  was 
incensed  against  those  nations,  that  vexed 
the  Israelites  more  cruelly,  than  his  dis- 
pleasure would  tolerate.  Are  3^ou  then 
so  absurd,  as  to  suppose  there  was  not 
strength  enough  in  God,  to  prohibit  these 
injuries,  if  it  was  his  pleasure  that  his 
people  should  be  chastised  more  mildly? 
You  will  object,  that  such  is  the  sound  of 
the  words.  But  you  are  thrice,  yea  four 
times  stupid,  if  you  do  not  perceive, 
that,  in  one  way,  God  wonderfully  tries 
the  patience  of  his  own,  by  a  severe 
ordeal ;  and  meanwhile,  in  another,  is 
displeased  with  the  insolence  of  the 
enemy,  when  he  beholds  him  extrava- 
gantly exulting  in  victory,  and  rushing 
into  barbarity.  Besides  nothing  is  more 
evident,  than  that  your  follies,  if  let 
alone,  mutually  destroy  each  other.  For 
God  either  commanded,  or  permitted, 
those  profane  nations,  gently  to  chastise 
the  Jews.  If  you  answer  there  was  a 
command,  I  maintain,  however  cause- 
lessly troublesome,  those  neighbours  may 
4* 


50  ON    SECRET 

have  been  to  God's  unhappy  exiles,  yet 
they  would  have  been  free  from  blame, 
provided  they  had  kept  due  bounds.  For 
who  would  make  a  lault  of  their  obedi- 
ence to  God  ?  Yet  you  make  a  distinction 
between  permission  and  command,  inas- 
much as  when  God  had  ordered  them  to 
inflict  light  punishment  on  his  people,  they 
by  his  permission  exceeded  their  limits. 
On  this  principle,  the  Israelites  were 
worthy  of  reproof,  because  they  afflicted 
their  brethren  more  greviously,  than  the 
divine  anger  allowed.  Now  your  ab- 
surdity is  too  blind,  in  imagining  they 
would  have  been  free  from  blame,  if 
they  had  only  kept  the  due  mean. 
For  1  will  alwa^^s  drag  you  back  to  this 
point,  that  the  Israelites  were  not  merely 
guilty  by  divine  permission  (as  you  fancy,) 
of  excessive  haishness,  but  also  of  un- 
justly taking  up  arms  against  their 
brethren.  You  scruple  not  to  assert, 
that  there  was  nothing  wrong  in  under- 
taking the  war,  because  God  was  angry 
at  the  Jews,  and  armed  the  Israelites, 
to  execute  his  commanded  vengeance. 
But  I  maintain  they  sinned  twice,  be- 
cause in  the  first  place,  they  had  no  in- 


PROVIDENCE.  51 

tention  of  obeying  God,  however  they 
were  the  instruments  of  his  vengeance  ; 
and  then,  the  very  atrocity  they  display- 
ed, showed  that  righteousness  was  not  in 
all  their  thoughts. 

Besides,  in  your  principle  itself,  you 
display  shameful  ignorance  in  fancying 
that  men  slip  and  err,  by  God's  permis- 
sion, in  so  far  as  they  are  concerned. 
For  it  is  an  impious  and  saciiligious  fig- 
ment, that  God  permits  any  evil  to  men, 
in  respect  of  them,  since  it  is  evident  he 
severely  prohibits,  and  forbids  whatever 
is  contrary  to  his  commands.  But  why 
he  chooses  to  allow  men  to  err,  nay 
dooms  those  to  error  in  his  secret  decree, 
whom  he  commands  to  hold  the  straight 
course, — of  this  it  is  the  part  of  sober  mo- 
desty to  be  ignorant ;  w^hile  it  belongs  to 
mad  temerity  to  cavil  about  it  as  you  do. 

As  to  Christ's  permission  to  his  dis- 
ciples to  depart,  you  may  infer  how  skil- 
fully you  interpret  the  passage,  from  the 
fact,  that  he  exhorts  them  to  persever- 
ance, by  setting  before  them  the  defec- 
tion of  others.  For  when  he  mournfully 
asks  them,  (John  vi.  67,)  "  will  ye  also 
go  away  ?"  he,  as  it  were,  puts  a  bridle 


52  ON    SECRET 

on  them  to  prevent  them  wandering  with 
apostates.  Does  this  way  of  speaking 
seem  to  you  a  permission  ?  I  acknow- 
ledge, indeed,  that  common  sense  dic- 
tates a  difference  between  ordering  and 
permitting,  but  on  this  point  we  have  no 
discussion.  The  question  is,  whether 
God  inactively  beholds  what  is  done  on 
earth  ;  or  whether  he  governs  with  su- 
preme sway  all  the  actions  of  men. 

Or,  if  the  word  permission  pleases  you 
so  much,  answer,  is  the  permission  will- 
ing or  unwilling  ?  This  last  supposition 
is  overthrown  by  what  we  read  in  the 
psalm,  that  God  does  whatever  he  pleases. 
But  if  it  be  a  willing  permission,  then 
you  cannot,  without  impiety,  fancy  him 
inactive.  Whence  it  follows,  he  regulates 
by  his  counsel,  what  he  chooses  shall 
come  to  pass. 

Now  it  is  too  silly  in  you,  to  think  of 
subjecting  so  sublime  a  mystery  of  God, 
to  the  rule  of  common  sense.  For,  as  to 
your  objection,  that  Christ  accommo- 
dated all  his  instructions  on  divine  things, 
to  common  sense,  he  himself  expressly 
denies  it  and  convicts  you  both  of  lying, 
and  impudence.     Do  you  not  hear  how 


PROVIDENCE.  53 

he  declares,  that  he  spake  in  parables, 
that  men  in  general  by  hearing,  might 
not  hear  ?  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  the 
Holy  Spirit,  alwa^'S  as  it  were  stammers, 
like  a  nurse,  for  our  sake s  ;  but  common 
sense  is  still  very  far  from  being  a  fit 
judge  of  that  doctrine,  which  transcends 
the  capacity  of  angels.  Paul  exclaims, 
that  the  natural  man  perceiveth  not  the 
things  of  God.  Therefore,  he  enjoins  all 
who  would  advance  in  the  celestial 
school,  to  become  fools,  and  to  be  empti- 
ed of  their  own  sense.  In  fine,  God 
ever}^ where  claims  for  himself  the  light 
of  intelligence  ;  and  time  and  paper 
would  fail,  were  I  to  gather  the  proofs, 
which  so  convict  common  sense  of  blind- 
ness, that  whoever  would  learn  of  God, 
must  renounce  his  own  wisdom,  and 
seek  light  from  heaven.  Therefore,  one 
example  is  sufficient.  Paul  calls  it  a 
mystery  hid  from  ages,  yea  concealed 
from  the  celestial  angels  themselves, 
that  God  would  not  have  evangelical 
doctrine,  promulgated  to  the  Gentiles, 
till  the  coming  of  Christ.  You  thrust 
forward  common  sense,  to  subvert  this 
doctrine   at  its   pleasure,  as  you  allow 


54  ON    SECRET 

nothing  to  be  susceptible  of  proof,  of 
which  it  is  not  the  judge,  and  the  arbiter. 
The  prophet,  spealdng  of  the  Providence 
of  God,  exclaims,  how  magnificent  are 
thy  works,  oh  Jehovah,  thy  thoughts  are 
very  deep.  Yo2c  deny  anything  to  be 
divine,  which  you  cannot  measure  with 
3^our  own  reason.  What  then  is  the 
meaning  of  Paul,  when  speaking  on  this 
subject,  he  says,  "  Oh  man,  who  art 
thou?"  Again,  "oh  the  height  and  the 
depth  !"  He  enjoins  wonder  and  aston- 
ishment ;  because  all  our  penetration 
fails  us,  when  brought  to  the  incompre- 
hensible counsel  of  God.  But  you  will 
admit  nothing,  that  is  not  subjected  to 
your  eyes. 


Article  Fourth. 

That  all  the  crimes,  which  any  man  commits, 
are  the  good  and  just  works  of  God* 

Against  the  Fourth. 

Against  the  fourth,  they  loudly  urge  that  passage  in 
Isaiah,  "  Woe  to  them  who  call  good  evil,  and  evil  good." 
Il'sinisa  goodand  just  work  of  God,  it  follows,  that  justice 


PKOVIDEISCE.  55 

is  an  evil,  and  unjust  work  of  God  ;  for  justice  is  entirely 
contrary  to  sin.  If  sin  is  jnst,  it  follows  that  injustice  is 
just ;  for  sin  is  injustice.  If  sin  is  a  work  of  God,  it  fol- 
lows that  God  coimnits  sin;  and  if  he  comuiits  sin,  he 
is  the  servant  of  sin,  according  to  the  doctrine  of  Christ. 
If  sin  is  a  work  of  God,  and  Christ  came  to  abchsh  sin, 
he  came  to  abolish  a  work  of  God.  But  if  Christ  came 
to  abolish  the  works  of  the  Devil,  as  Peter  testifies,  what 
are  the  works  of  the  Devil  ?  Ifsin  is  a  just  work  of  God, 
God  hates  and  punishes  his  own  just  work ;  therefore 
he  is  unjust. 

But  if  it  is  objected  to  them,  that  sin  is  not  sin  in  God, 
it  is  demanded,  in  whom  then  is  it  sin  ?  Or  why  does 
God  himself  hate  it  ?  Or  why  is  sin  called  sin,  unless  it 
is  because  it  is  against  the  law,  not  ol  men,  but  ol'God? 
If  sin  is  the  work  of  God,  God  commits  sin,  and  if  God 
commits  sin,  he  sins;  as  he  who  doeth  righteousness,  is 
righteous.  But  if  God  sins,  why  does  he  forbid  others 
to  sin.  Why  does  he  not  rather  command  men  to  sin, 
that  they  may  be  his  own  imitators?  Fur  children 
should  f(>llow  their  parent.  "  Be  ye  holy,"  says  he, 
"  for  I  am  holy."  Therefore  by  the  same  rule  it  will  be 
said,  "  Commit  ye  sin,  for  I  commit  sin." 

J.  Calvin's  Reply, 

In  the  fourth  article  you  add  to  your 
forgeries  ;  of  which  fact,  I  would  have 
readers  warned,  only  on  this  account,  that 
they  may  judge  of  the  matter  by  its  own 
merits,  instead  of  by  youi  foetid  calum- 
nies. Not  that.  I  shrink  from  your  objec- 
tion; I  merely  complain,  that  my 
language  is  changed,  for  the  malignant 
purpose  of  distorting  my  doctrine,  into 


56  ONSECKET 

sometliing  odious.  You  contend  with 
me  just  as  if  I  had  said,  that  sin  is  a  just 
work  of  God ;  a  sentiment  uniformly 
held  up  to  detestation,  in  all  my  writings. 
Therefore,  just  in  proportion  as  your 
puerility  seems  subtle  to  yourself,  is  it  in 
reality  ridiculous.  You  infer  that  justice 
is  evil,  injustice  good,  that  God  is  the 
servant  of  sin,  and  unjustly  punishes 
what  he  does  himself;  all  which  are 
monsters  fabricated  in  your  own  brain, 
and  diligently  refuted  by  me,  as  my 
books  testif}^  But  you  shall  by-and- 
bye  feel,  how  detestable  is  the  crime,  to 
trifle  in  your  railing  way  with  the  hidden 
mysteries  of  God.  Now  that  you  may 
know  you  have  no  business  or  controversy 
wdth  me,  but  with  that  celestial  Judge, 
whose  tribunal  you  shall  not  escape  ; 
Job,  by  no  other  surely  than  the  Spirit's 
impulse,  declares  that  to  have  been  the 
work  of  God,  which  was  done  both  by 
Satan  and  by  robbers  ;  and  yet  he  does 
not  tax  God  with  sin  but  blesses  his  holy 
name.  It  is  certain  that  the  selling  of  in- 
nocent Joseph  by  his  brethren,  was  an 
atrocious  crime ;  yet  Joseph  ascribing 
the  same  work  to  God,  contemplates  his 


PROVIDENCE.  57 

immense  goodness,  in  thereby  giving 
food  to  his  father's  family.  When  Isaiah 
calls  the  Assyrians  the  rod  in  the  hand 
of  God,  he  makes  God  the  author  of  the 
horrible  carnage,  which  through  him  was 
to  be  effecled  ;  but  without  casting  the 
smallest  stain  on  God.  Jeremiah  cursing 
those  who  did  the  woik  of  God  neolioent- 
1}^,  means  by  the  work  of  God,  whatsoever 
cruelty  an  impious  adversary  inflicted  on 
the  Jews.  Now  expostulate  with  him, 
as  if  he  said  that  God  sinned.  In  fine, 
all  who  are  acquainted  with  the  Scrip- 
tures, are  aware  that  such  testimonies 
might  be  multiplied  so  as  to  form  a 
volume.  But  what  need  is  there  of  w^oi  ds, 
when  the  thins:  is  clear  of  itself.  Was 
it  not  an  illustrious  display  of  the  grace 
of  God,  that  he  did  not  spare  his  Son  ^ 
Of  Christ  too  that  he  gave  himself  up  f 
Here  you,  with  impure  and  sacrilegious 
mouth,  affirm  that  God  sinned,  if  the 
sacrifice  of  his  Only  Begotten  Son  was 
his  work.  But  every  pious  man  along 
with  Augustine,  has  no  difiiculty  in  unty- 
ing this  knot.  When  the  Father  deliver- 
ed up  the  Son,  and  the  Lord  his  own 
body,  and  Judas  his  Lord,  why  in  this 
5 


58  ON    SECRET 

surrender  (48  Ep.  to  Vin.)  is  God  just 
and  man  guilty  ?  If  not  because  in  the  one 
thing  which  the}^  did,  the  causes  were  dif- 
ferent, on  account  of  which  they  did  it» 
Therefore,  Peter  does  not  scruple  openly 
to  assert  (Acts  iv.  28,)  that  Pilate,  Judas, 
and  the  rest  of  the  wicked,  did  what  the 
counsel  and  hand  of  God  had  decreed  ;  as 
a  little  before  he  had  declared  (Acts  ii.  28,) 
that  Christ  was  delivered  by  the  deter- 
minate counsel  and  foreknowledge  of 
God.  If  you  quibble  about  the  word 
foreknowled2:e,  vou  are  abundantly  re- 
futed  by  the  "  determinate  counsel ;" 
and  the  former  passage  leaves  not  the 
shadow  of  doubt,  when  it  declares  that 
Pilate  and  the  wicked  did,  what  the 
counsel  and  the  hand  of  God,  had  decreed 
to  be  done.  If  you  do  not  comprehend 
so  great  a  secret,  wonder  w^ith  the  apos- 
tle, and  exclaim,  oh  the  height !  but  do 
not  madly  insult.  If  you  would  be 
teachable,  a  fuller  explanation  w^ere 
ready  for  you,  in  my  other  writings ;  it 
is  now  sufficient  to  beat  down  your  inso- 
lence, lest  weak  minds  should  be  shaken. 


PROVIDENCE.  59 

Article  Fifth. 

That  no  adultery^  theft,  or  homicide  is  com- 
mitted, without  the  will  of  God  being  con- 
cerned.    Ins.  Cop.  14.  Distin.  44. 

Article  Sixth. 

The  Scripture  openly  testifies,  that  crimes 
are  appointed  not  merely  by  the  will,  but 
by  the  authority  of  God. 

Against  the  Fifth  and  Sixth. 

Against  the  fifth  and  the  sixth  your  adversaries  say 
many  things,  and  liiese  especially.  If  God  wills  sin,  and 
is  the  author  of  sin,  God  hiiuscltis  to  be  punished.  For 
sin  should  be  visited  altogether  on  its  author.  If  God 
wills  sin,  the  Devil  does  not  will  sin  ;  for  the  Devil  is  in 
all  things  contrary  to  God.  If  God  wills  sin,  he  loves 
sin;  and  if  he  loves  sin  he  hates  righteousness.  If  God 
wills  sin,  he  is  worse  than  many  men,  for  many  men  are 
unwilling  to  sin.  JVay,  the  nearer  any  one  approaches 
the  nature  of  God.  the  less  he  wills  sin.  Why  then  does 
Paul  say,  the  good  I  would  I  do  not;  but  the  evil  I 
would  not,  thaFl  do?  Why  does  not  Paul  will,  what 
God  wills  .'  Or  why  does  Paul  will  what  God  does  not 
will  ?  Lastly,  they  demand  what  Scripture  testifies  that 
crimes  are  appointed  not  merely  by  the  will  but  by  the 
authority  of  God? 

J.  Calvhi's  Reply, 

It  was  owing  to  that  very  divine  pro- 
vidence which  you  oppose,  that  you  hap- 


60  ONSECRET 

pened  to  mark  the  passage  in  the  fifth 
article.  Readers  will  perceive,  that  I 
am  there  reciting  in  the  person  of  my  ad- 
versaries, the  objections  which  are  ordi- 
narily brought  against  my  doctrine.  You 
snatch  at  that  mutilated  passage  ;  and  do 
you  not  deserve  that  every  one  should 
spit  in  your  face  ?  In  the  sixth  article, 
though  you  do  not  specify  the  place,  your 
impudence  makes  a  still  wider  bound, 
that  I,  who,  as  often  as  sin  is  mentioned, 
uniformly  give  the  most  solemn  warnings, 
that  the  name  of  God  must  be  kept  wide 
apart,  that  /  should  anywhere  have  said, 
that  crimes  are  perpetrated  not  only  by 
the  will,  bat  by  the  authority  of  God. 
Certainly  I  shall  willingly  suffer  any- 
thing to  be  said  against  a  blasphemy  so 
prodigious,  only  let  not  my  name  be  so 
unrighteously  coupled  with  it.  How  far 
you  succeed  in  deceiving  fools,  I  know 
not ;  but  I  have  no  fear,  should  any  one 
choose  to  compare  your  figments  with  my 
writings,  but  your  dishonesty  will  render 
you  execrable  as  you  deserve  to  be.  You 
contend  if  God  loves  sin,hehates  righteous- 
ness, and  you  bring  forward  many  things 
of  the  same  import.     For  what  purpose  f 


PR  OV  IDENCE .  61 

If  not  to  subscribe  my  language.  For  it 
is  not  yesterday  for  the  first  time,  nor  the 
day  before,  but  many  years  since,  I  have 
distinctty  used  this  language,  (book  on 
Eternal  Predestination,)  "  If  in  tne  spoil- 
ing of  Job,  there  was  a  work  common  to 
God,  to  Satan,  and  to  robbers,  how  shall 
God  be  exempted  from  whatever  blame 
belonos  to  Satan  and  his  instruments  ? 
Beyond  all  question  human  actions  are 
distinguished  by  their  object  and  design, 
so  that  his  cruelty  is  condemned,  who 
digs  out  crows'  eyes,  or  kills  the  stork, 
while  the  merit  of  the  Judge  is  praised, 
who  sanctifies  his  hands  by  the  slaught- 
er of  the  wicked.  And  why  shall  the 
condition  of  God  be  worse,  so  that  his 
justice  may  nt)t  separate  him  from  the 
crimes  of  men?"  Let  readers  only  run 
over  what  I  there  subjoin,  nay,  let  them 
peruse  the  whole  passage  in  that  treatise, 
where  I  dispute  about  the  Providence  of 
God,  and  they  will  easily  perceive,  how 
all  your  mists  are  there  sufficiently,  and 
more  than  sufficiently  dispelled.  Let 
them  add,  if  they  please,  what  I  have 
written  on  the  second  chapter  of  Acts. 
When  men  commit  theft  or  homicide, 
5» 


62  ONSECRET 

they  therefore  sin,  because  they  are 
thieves  and  homicides.  Now  in  theft 
and  homicide,  there  is  a  wicked  desisn. 
God  who  employs  their  wickedness,  is  to 
be  placed  in  a  higher  position,  for  he  has 
an  entirely  different  object,  inasmuch  as 
he  intends  to  chastise  one,  and  exercise 
the  patience  of  another ;  and  thus  he 
never  swerves  from  his  nature,  that  is, 
from  perfect  rectitude.  Wickedness  being 
always  estimated  from  the  design  con- 
templated, it  is  evident  that  God  is  not 
the  author  of  sin. 

The  sum  of  the  whole  matter  is  this ; 
since  the  cause  of  sin  is  an  evil  will  in 
men,  when  God  executes  his  righteous 
judgments  by  their  hands,  he  is  so  far 
from  being  involved  in  blame,  that  he 
brings  forth  the  light  of  his  glory  out  of 
darkness.  In  that  tract  too,  which  roused 
these  furies  from  deep  hell  against  me, 
the  following  clear  distinction  frequently 
occurs,  that  nothing  is  more  iniquitous, 
or  more  preposterous,  than  to  draw  God 
into  fellowship  in  gailt,  when  he  executes 
his  judgments  by  the  hands  of  the  Devil 
and  the  wicked  ;  since  there  is  no  affini- 
ty in  their  ways  of  acting. 


PROVIDENCE.  63 

Besides  I  have  published  a  work  twelve 
years  since,  which  more  than  sufficiently 
vindicates  me  from  your  putid  calum- 
nies ;  and  should  have  protected  me  from 
all  annoyance,  if  in  you  and  those  like 
you,  there  were  one  drop  of  humanity  ; 
for  I  boast  not  how  skilfully  I  have  re- 
futed that  phrenzy,  by  which  the  liber- 
tines (those  monsters)  had  fascinated 
many.  It  is  certain  I  professedly  un- 
dertook the  management  of  that  cause, 
and  have  luminously  demonstrated  that 
"God  is  not  the  author  of  sin. 


Article  Seventh. 

What  men  do  in  sinning  they  do  hy  the  will 
of  God,  since  very  often  the  will  of  God  is 
inconsiste?it  with  the  precept. 

Against  the  Severith, 

On  the  seventh  they  ask.  if  the  will  of  God  is  often 
inconsistent  with  the  precept,  how  is  it  possible  to  know 
when  he  wills,  and  when  he  does  not  will  what  he  enjoins. 
For  if  Calvin  say  we  must  always  do  what  God  com- 
mands, whether  he  will  it  or  not,  it  follows  that  God 
would  sometimes  have  his  will  resisted.  For  if  he  com- 
mands me  not  to  commit  adultery  and  yet  wills  that  I 


64  ONSECRET 

shall  commit  adultery,  and  yet  I  ought  not  to  do  so,  I 
ought,  in  that  ca?e,  to  act  contrary  to  his  will.  Now, 
then,  when  he  gives  this  universal  command  to  the 
Israelites,  "  Do  not  commit  adultery,"  whether  does  he 
will  that  all  should  ohey  him,  or  that  some  should,  and 
others  not?  Here  your  adversaries  demand  tome  dis- 
tinct reply,  Calvin.  If  you  say.  that  he  chooses  a  part 
should  coMunit  the  sin,  and  a  part  not,  God  will  be  in- 
consistent with  himself  in  the  same  precept. 

They  also  allege  that  God  is  a  liypocrite,  if  heYenjoins 
one  thing,  and  wills  another;  that  he  has  honey  in  his 
mouth,  and  gall  in  his  heart.  If  it  is  objected  to  them 
that  God  has  two  wills  contrary  to  each  other,  the  one 
open,  that  is  to  say  in  his  precepts;  the  otiier  hid  ;  they 
ask  who  opened  that  hidden  will  to  Calvin?  For  if 
Calvin  and  his  party  know  it,  it  is  not  hidden;  if  they 
are  ignorant  of  it,  why  do  they  make  assertions  about  a 
thing  unknown? 

They  also  maintain  that  two  contraries  cannot  exist 
together,  at  the  same  time,  in  one  subject.  But  to  will 
at  once  the  same  thing,  and  not  to  will  it,  are  contraries. 
Besides,  if  God  have  two  wills  inconsistent  with  each 
other,  it  is  credible  that  Calvin  (an  imitator  of  God,  of 
course.)  has  two  wills,  and  that  he  says  one  thing,  and 
thinks  another.  Therefore  we  are  unwilling  to  l)elieve 
Calvin,  as  a  man  double-tongued,  double-hearted,  and 
double-willed. 

Again,  it  God,  when  he  commands  justice,  wills  in- 
justice, it  follows,  that  the  Devil  ordering  injustice,  may 
will  justice.  And  if  God,  in  saying  oi;e  thing,  and  will- 
ing another,  does  not  sm,  it  follows,  if  any  one  imitate 
him  in  this  he  does  not  sin;  lor  to  imitate  God  is  cer- 
tainly not  wrong.  Therefore  it  will  be  lawfiil  to  exhort 
men  in  this  way ; — lie,  say  one  thing,  and  carry  another 
in  your  breasts,  that  ye  may  be  like  your  Father,  who 
says  one  thing,  and  wills  another. 

They  also  ask,  with  which  will  God  speaks,  when  he 
commands  us  to  pray,  "Thy  will  be  done;"  and  "  who- 
soever doeth  the  will  of  my  Father,  who  is  in  heaven, 


PROVIDENCE.  65 

the  same  is  my  brother,  and  my  sister,  and  my  mother." 
So  Paul,  "  Thou  art  called  a  Jew,  and  resiest  in  the 
law,  and  makest  thy  boast  of  God,  and  knowest  his  will, 
and  dost  approve  things  that  are  excellent,  and  hast 
learned  the  law,"  &c.  &c.  Certainly  here  the  will  of 
God  is  what  the  law  commands,  and  if  that  will  is  good, 
whatever  will  is  contrary  must  be  evil.  For  whatever 
is  contrary  to  good  is  evil.  So  in  regard  to  the  declara- 
tion of  Christ,  "  how  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy 
children  together,  and  ye  would  not ;"  Christ  certainly 
speaks  of  his  open  will,  which  had  been  expressed  in  so 
many  ways.  Now  if  he  had  another  will  contrary  to 
that,  his  whole  life  was  mere  hypocrisy,  which  is  horrible 
even  to  think  of. 

In  fine,  they  say,  if  God  enjoins  what  he  does  not 
will,  there  are  not  too  wills,  but  a  lie  ;  for  whoever  says 
he  wills  what  he  does  not  will,  lies;  and  to  command 
merely  in  words  is  to  lie,  and  not  to  will. 

J.  Calvin's  Rejjly. 

To  answer  the  seventh  is  no  concern 
of  mine.  Produce  the  passage,  where  I 
affirm  that  the  will  of  God  is  very  often 
contiary  to  the  precept;  for  such  a 
thing  never  came  into  my  mind,  even  in 
a  dream.  But  on  the  contrary  I  have 
faithfully  expounded,  amongst  other 
things,  how  the  will  of  God  is  simple  and 
one,  though  between  his  secret  counsel 
and  his  doctrine,  some  seeming  discrepan- 
cy may  appear.  Whoever  shall  modestly 
and  soberly  submit  to  the  omnipotent 
God,  wdll  easily  understand,  so  far  as  the 


66  ONSECRET 

scanty  measure  of  man's  intelligence 
may  reach,  how  God,  who  forbids  whore- 
dom, and  punished  the  adultery  of  David 
by  the  incest  of  Absalom,  always  wills 
one  and  the  same  thins:,  thouoh  in  differ- 
ent  ways.  Therefore,  lest  the  filth  of 
your  lies  should  cast  the  smallest  stain 
on  me,  this  may  be  briefly  testified  to  the 
reader,  that  your  allegations  about  me 
holding  two  contrary  wills  in  God,  are 
most  wicked  fictions  of  your  own  ;  since 
I  everywhere  teach,  that  the  most  perfect 
harmony  subsists  between  God's  hidden 
counsel,  and  the  outward  word  of  his 
doctrine.  I  grant  that  Augustine  men- 
tions different  wills  ;  but  these  so  harmo- 
nious with  each  other,  that  the  last  day 
will  demonstrate  how  consistent  he  was 
in  all  his  complicated  modes  of  action. 

This  being  settled,  now  fight  with  your- 
self to  3^our  heart's  content  "  about  God 
forbidding  what  he  wishes  to  be  done,  or 
enjoining  what  he  does  not  w^ish,  and  thus 
commandinofhiswillto  be  resisted."  Tnall 
this  filth  I  recognise  nothing  belonging  to 
me.  On  the  contrary  this  is  the  sum  of 
my  doctrine.  The  will  of  God,  which  is 
expressed  in  the  Law,  clearly  proves  that 


PROVIDENCE.  67 

rectitude  is  approved  by  him,  and  iniqui- 
ty detested.  And  be3^ond  all  doubt,  he 
would  not  denounce  punishment  against 
evil-doers,  if  they  pleased  him.  Still 
what  he  is  not  willing  should  be  done, 
and  forbids  any  one  to  do,  he  may,  never- 
theless, in  his  own  ineffable  counsel,  de- 
termine shall  be  done  for  a  different  end. 
If  you  here  retort  on  me,  that  God  is  in- 
consistent with  himself,  I  shall  ask  in  re- 
turn, does  it  become  you  to  prescribe  the 
law  to  him  of  never  transcending  the 
range  of  3^our  judgment  ?  Moses  pro- 
claims that  God  has  his  own  secrets  ; 
while  the  Law  reveals  what  it  is  useful 
for  man  to  know.  Will  you  suppose  that 
nothing  is  lawful  for  God,  that  is  not  per- 
fectly plain  to  you  ?  In  the  book  of  Job 
after  the  depth  of  his  counsel  is  cele- 
brated, which  swallows  up  all  human 
comprehension,  this  clause  is  at  length 
added,  "  Lo  !  these  are  the  extremities 
of  his  ways,  and  how  little  is  heard  of 
him  !"  You  will  allow  no  counsel  to  God, 
that  is  not  brought  under  your  eye.  Now 
you  are  either  more  than  blind,  or  you 
see  that  when  God  in  his  word  forbids 
you  adulter}^  he  is  unwilling  you  should 


68  ONSECRET 

be  an  adulterer ;  and  that  yet  in  the 
adulteries  which  he  condemns,  he  exer- 
cises his  just  judgments ;  which  undoubt- 
edly he  could  not  do,  unless  both  his 
knowleage  and  his  will  were  concernedr 
If  you  would  have  the  thing  stated  more 
briefly ; — he  does  will  that  adultery 
should  not  be  committed,  in  so  far  as  it 
is  pollution, — a  violation  of  sacred  order, 
— in  fine  a  transgression  of  the  law  ;  in 
so  far  as  he  employs  adulteries,  and 
other  enormities  in  the  execution  of  his 
vengeance,  he  certainly  does  not  unwill- 
irjgly  discharge  the  duty  of  a  judge.  For 
though  we  will  not  praise  the  Chaldeans 
and  Assyrians  for  cruelly  wading  through 
scenes  of  horrid  slaughter  ;  yea  though 
God  himself  declares,  that  he  would  be 
avenged  on  them  ;  yet  again  he  else- 
where informs  us,  that  sacrifices  were  in 
this  way  prepared  for  him.  Will  you 
deny  that  God's  will  is  concerned  in  that 
w^hich  he  dignifies  with  the  honourable 
name  of  sacrifice.  (Is.  xxix.  and  xxxiv. 
cap.  ;  Jer.  xlvi. ;  Ezek.  xxxix.) 

At  length  then  awake,  and  acknow- 
ledge that  when  men  are  driven  headlong 
by  depraved  a])petite,  God  in  secret  and 


PROVIDENCE.  69 

ineffable  ways  manages  his  own  judg- 
ments. You  think  the  quibble  subtle, 
when  you  ask ;  in  prohibiting  adultery, 
does  God  will  that  all  should  commit  it, 
or  only  a  part  ?  For  if  I  answer  a  part, 
you  infer  that  God  is  inconsistent  with 
himself.  Now  you  have  a  definite 
answer,  that  God  demands  chastity  of 
all,  because  he  loves  it  in  all ;  yet  expe- 
rience itself,  though  1  were  silent,  shows 
different  ways  of  willing.  For  if  his  will 
were  equally  efficacious  that  all  should 
be  chaste,  he  would  without  doubt  render 
all  chaste.  Now  as  chastity  is  his  pecu- 
liar gift,  it  is  easy  to  infer  that  he  wills 
differently  what  he  enjoins  in  the  word, 
from  what  he  realises  by  the  Spirit  of 
regeneration.  Nor  on  this  principle,  is 
theie  any  reason  that  your  shameless 
tongue  should  upbraid  God  with  hypoc- 
risy ;  as  if  he  had  honey  in  his  mouth, 
and  gall  in  his  heart.  For  God  pretends 
nothing  either  in  commanding  or  forbid- 
ding ;  but  sincerely  reveals  his  nature. 
And  in  that  secret  counsel  by  which  he 
guides  all  the  actions  ofmen,  you  will 
find  nothing  contrary  to  his  justice. 
Whoredom  displeases  God  the  author  of 
6 


70  ON    SECRET 

chastity  ;  yet  the  same  God  determined 
to  punish  David  by  the  incestuous  out- 
rages of  Absalom.  Human  blood  he 
forbids  to  be  shed,  because  as  he  follows 
his  image  with  his  love,  so  he  guards  it 
with  his  protection  ;  and  yet  out  of 
impious  nations,  he  raised  up  executioners 
of  the  sons  of  Eli,  because  he  determined 
to  slay  them.  Such  is  the  express  doc- 
trine of  the  sacred  history.  If  your 
bhndness  is  a  hindrance  to  you,  yet  all 
who  have  eyes  perceive,  that  it  is  quite 
consistent  for  God  to  abhor  whoredom 
and  slaughter,  in  so  far  as  they  are  sins, 
or  (what  comes  to  the  same  thing,)  to 
abhor  the  transgression  of  his  law  in 
whoredom  and  slaughter,  and  yet  to 
execute  his  own  ju:igments,  in  taking 
just  vengeance  on  the  sins  of  men,  by 
means  of  slaughter,  and  wickedness  of 
every  kind. 

However  dexterous  you  may  fancy 
your  query  if  there  is  any  secret  will  of 
God,  how  did  I  happen  to  find  it  out ;  I 
shall  have  no  difficulty  in  answering  it, 
provided  I  may  be  allowed  to  follow  the 
Holy  Spirit  as  my  master.  For  if  Paul 
testifies  that  God  dwells  in  light  inacces- 


PROVIDENCE.  '  71 


sible  ;  if  the  same  apostle  with  good 
reason  exclaims  that  his  ways  are  incom- 
prehensible, why  ma}^  I  not  be  allowed 
to  admire  his  secret  will  thouoh  it  be  con- 

o 

cealed  from  us  ?  The  wisdom  of  God  is 
extolled  in  the  book  of  Job,  with  numerous 
and  splendid  eulogiums,  that  mortals 
may  learn  not  to  measure  that  wisdom  by 
their  own  apprehensions.  Will  you  then 
ridicule  all  discourse  about  what  is  con- 
cealed ?  Or  will  you  upbraid  David  with 
speaking  foolishly  of  the  judgments  of 
God,  when  he  acknowledges  them  to  be 
a  great  deep  ?  From  all  the  prophets 
and  apostles,  I  learn  that  the  divine 
counsel  is  incomprehensible.  I  embrace 
what  they  declare  with  no  hesitating 
failh.  Why  should  this  modesty  be  im- 
puted to  me  as  a  fault  ?  And  think  not 
to  escape  by  saying,  that  I  refer  to  ex- 
amples that  are  not  applicable  ;  for  surely 
I  have  the  very  same  subject  in  hand  as 
Paul  had,  when  he  exclaims  concerning 
the  depth  of  the  riches  of  wisdom — the 
incomprehensible  judgments,  the  un- 
searchable ways  of  God,  in  secret  elec- 
tion or  reprobation  ; — and  yet  ceases  not 
openly  to  assert,  that  God  follows  whom 


Mi 


72  O  N    S  E  C  R  E  T 

he  pleases  with  mercy,  and  dooms  the 
rest  to  destruction. 

In  fine,  give  up  all  fondness  for  your 
puerile  dilemna,  for  the  Scriptures  assure 
me  of  the  secret  will  of  God  ;  asserting 
what  I  have  learned  from  them  I  do 
speak  of  an  ascertained  truth  ;  but  be- 
cause I  do  not  reach  so  great  a  height,  I 
reverently  adore  with  fear  and  trembhng 
what  is  too  sublime  for  the  angels  them- 
selves. Often  therefore  in  my  writings  I 
admtjnish  my  readers,  that  on  this  sub- 
ject nothing  is  better  than  a  learned 
ignorance  ;  for  those  rave  like  madmen 
who  arrogate  to  know  more  about  it  than 
is  fit. 

You  now  perceive  how  confident  I  am 
about  that  will  of  God,  of  which  the 
Scriptures  are  the  witnesses  ;  still  it  is 
secret,  inasmuch  as,  z^;//?/' God  wills  this 
to  come  to  pass,  or  that ;  and  how  he 
wills  it,  even  the  intellects  of  angels  can- 
not comprehend  ;  while  your  pride  so  far 
infatuates  you  and  your  fellows,  as  to 
tempt  you  to  annihilate  whatever  eludes 
01  transcends  your  capacity. 

Your  objections  about  contrarieties  are 
now   sufficiently  removed.     You   attack 


PROVIDENCE.  73 

me  indeed  with  this  scurrihty ;  if  I  am 
an  imitator  of  God,  you  deny  that  any 
faith  is  due  to  a  double-tongued,  a  double- 
hearted,  and  a  double-willed  man ;  but 
it  is  too  foolish  to  annoy  me.  By-and- 
bye  you  shall  know  w^hat  it  is  to  imitate 
the  Devil,  by  ascending  on  high  to  become 
like  the  Highest.  That  which  alone  tor- 
tures me,  is  the  insane  blasphemies 
wherewith  you  defile  the  sacred  majesty 
of  God,  of  which,  hovv^ever,  he  will  him- 
self be  the  avenger. 

As  the  will  of  God,  wdiich  he  has  de- 
livered in  his  law,  is  good,  I  grant  that 
whatever  is  contrary  to  it  is  evil :  but 
when  you  babble  about  the  contrariety  of 
that  hidden  will,  by  which  God  distin- 
guishes between  the  vessels  of  mercy 
and  the  vessels  of  wrath,  and  freely 
uses  both  according  to  his  pleasure,  you 
exhale  a  vanity  as  detestable  as  it  is 
false,  from  the  foetid  ditch  of  your  igno- 
rance. I  confess  Christ  speaks  of  his 
open  will,  when  he  says,  "Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem,  how  often  would  I  have 
gathered  thy  children  together,  but  ye 
would  not ;"  he  casts  the  same  reproach 
on  the  Jews,  as  Moses  did  in  his  song. 
6* 


74  ON    SECRET 

And  indeed  we  know  that  God  actually 
performed  what  these  words  imply ; 
since  the  doctrine  of  the  law,  the  exer- 
cises of  piety,  and  the  various  benefits 
by  which  God  bound  that  people  to  him- 
self, were  nothing  else  than  the  spreading 
of  his  wings  for  their  protection  ;  had  not 
their  own  unsubdued  wildness  hurried 
them  elsewhere.  When  therefore  Christ 
had  tried  so  frequently,  and  in  so  mauy 
ways,  to  recall  by  his  prophets,  that 
perverse  nation  to  obedience,  he  reasona- 
bly complains  of  their  ingratitude.  For 
in  restricting  your  remark  to  the  life  of 
Christ,  you  display  your  ordinary  want 
of  skill,  as  if  he  were  not  the  true  God, 
who  from  the  beginning  had  not  ceased 
to  spread  over  them  the  wings  of  his 
favour.  Then,  you  infer  that  if  he  had 
another  will,  contrary  to  his  expressed 
will,  his  whole  life  must  have  been  a 
scene  of  hypocrisy ;  as  if,  forsooth,  it 
were  inconsistent  to  allure  by  invitation 
and  benefits,  and  to  withhold  from  the 
heart,  the  secret  impulse  of  his  Spirit. 

That  the  futility  of  this  calumny  may 
be  more  manifest,  w^hen  he  complains 
that  he  had  been  disappointed,  inasmuch 


PROVIDENCE.  75 

as  the  vine  which  he  had  expected  to 
bring  forth  sweet  fruit,  had  produced 
sour  ;  what  is  your  opinion  about  this, 
my  worthy  turner  of  sentences  ?  Will 
3^ou  impute  ignorance  to  him,  to  salve  his 
reputation  for  veracity  ?  The  Jews 
disappointed  God ;  therefore  according 
to  you,  w^hile  sitting  doubtful  what  would 
turn  out,  the  event  deceived  him  ;  as  if 
truly  a  style  of  speaking,  referring  merely 
to  the  result  itself,  could  be  violently 
applied  to  the  secret  foreknowledge  of 
God. 

He  says  elsewhere,  "  you  w411  surely 
fear  me  ;"  and.  they  hastened  to  corrupt 
their  ways.  God  promises  himself  some 
fruit  from  the  punishments  inflicted  ;  he 
afterwards  complains  that  he  had  been 
deceived.  Can  you  disentangle  yourself 
from  this  passage  likewise,  only  by  sup- 
posing that  God  is  bound  by,  and  depend- 
ant on,  the  free  will  of  man  ?  As  if  it  were 
not  sufficiently  clear,  that  for  the  purpose 
of  enhancing  their  crime,  he  assumes  the 
character  of  man,  w^io  says  that  his 
labour  is  lost,  when  the  result  does  not 
correspond.  Undoubtedly,  those  whom 
God  determines  efficacion^y  to  gather  to 


76  ON    SECRET 

himself,  he  draws  by  his  Spirit,  and  as 
this  is  entirely  dependant  on  himself,  he 
promises  that  he  will  do  it.  Therefore 
as  many  are  called,  who  do  not  follow, 
it  is 'perfectly  certain  that  that  mode  of 
gatheiing,  which  Christ  laments  as  hav- 
ing been  fruitless  and  vain,  must  differ 
from  the  efficacious,  of  which  mention  is 
made  elsewhere.  As  in  Isaiah  (xi.  12 j 
and  Iviii.  8  ;  xliii.  5  ;  lii.  12  ;  liv.  7.) 
*'  He  will  gather  the  dispersed  of  Judah  ;" 
and  "  the  glory  of  the  Lord  will  gather 
you."  Also  "  I  will  gather  you  from  the 
west."  Again  "  your  God  will  gather 
you  ;"  and  that  because  he  had  just  be- 
fore said,  that  God  had  bared  his  arm, 
to  make  his  power  conspicuous  in  the 
sioht  of  the  nations.  And  therefore  he 
repeats  a  little  after ;  "  for  a  moment  I 
have  left  thee,  bat  with  everlasting  mer- 
cies w^ll  I  gather  thee." 

What  I  have  said  of  the  precepts, 
abundantly  suffices  to  confound  3^our 
blasphemies.  For  though  God  gives  no 
pretended  commands,  but  seriously  de- 
clares what  he  wishes  and  approves  ; 
yet  it  is  in  one  way,  that  he  wills  the 
obedience  of  his  elect  whom  he  effica- 


PROVIDENCE.  77 

clously  bends  lo  compliance ;  and  in 
another  that  of  the  reprobate  whom  he 
warns  by  the  external  word,  but  does  not 
see  good  to  draw  to  himself.  Contumacy 
and  depravity  are  equally  natural  to  all,  so 
that  none  is  ready  and  willing  to  assume 
the  yoke.  To  some  God  promises  the  spirit 
o'l  obedience  ;  others  are  left  to  their  own 
depravity.  For  however  you  may  prate, 
the  new  heart  is  not  promised  indiscrimi- 
nately to  all ;  but  peculiarly  to  the  elect, 
that  they  may  w^alk  in  God's  precepts. 
Good  critic,  what  think  you  of  this  ? 
When  God  invites  the  whole  crowd  to 
himself,  and  withholds  knowingly,  and 
willingly  his  Spirit  from  the  greater  part, 
while  he  draws  the  few  by  his  secret  in- 
fluence to  obey,  must  he  on  that  account 
be  condemned  as  guilty  of  falsehood  ? 


Article  Eighth. 

The  hardening  of  Pharaoh^  and  consequently 
his  obstinacy  and  rebellion,  were  the  work 
of  God  even  by  the  testimony  of  Moses, 
who  ascribes  the  whole  rebellion  of  Pha- 
raoh to  God. 


7S  ONSECRET 

Article  Ninth. 

The  will  of  God  is  the  highest  caiise  of  the 
hardening  of  man. 

Agamst  the  Eighth  and  Ninth. 

On  the  eighth  and  ninth  they  inquire  what  IMoses 
means,  when  he  writes  that  Pharaoh  hardened  his  own 
heart?  Shall  we  interpret  thus  ;  Pharaoh  hardened  his 
own  heart,  that  is  God  hardened  Pharaoh's  heart.  But 
this  truly  will  be  much  more  violent,  than  if  yon  were 
to  say  God  hardened  Pharaoh's  heart,  that  is  God 
allowed  Pharaoh  to  remain  in  the  natural  hardness  of 
his  heart,  because  Pharaoh  had  refused  to  obey  him. 

In  the  next  place,  they  ask  concerning  that  passage, 
"To  day  if  ye  will  liear  his  voice,  harden  not  your 
hearts."  Now  if  you  interpret  this,  let  not  God  harden 
your  hearts,  it  will  be  very  absurd,  as  it  would  be  enjoin- 
ing men  to  do  God's  work.  For  if  it  belongs  to  God  to 
harden  hearts,  it  is  impossible  to  ct)mmaud  men  either 
to  harden  them,  or  not  to  harden  them  ;  any  more  thau 
to  add,  or  take  away,  a  cubit  from  their  stature. 

J.  Calvin'' s  Reply. 

Here  again  I  entreat  the  honesty  of 
my  readers,  to  compare  my  language, 
and  the  whole  strain  of  my  teaching, 
with  your  garbled  articles.  Thus,  Avhen 
3^oar  calumny  is  detected,  all  the  odium 
which  you  labour  to  excite,  will  vanish 
of  its  own  accord.  Meanwhile,  I  do  not 
deny,   that   I    have    taught    along   with 


rROVlDElVCE.  79 

ISIoses  and  Paul,  that  God  hardened 
Pharaoh's  heart.  Here  you  expostulate 
with  me  to  the  contempt  of  Moses,  and 
treating  his  word  as  of  no  account,  ask 
"  When  the  same  Moses  declares,  that 
Pharaoh  hardened  his  own  heart,  why 
have  recourse  to  that  violent  interpreta- 
tion— God  hardened  Pharaoh's  heart  ?" 
Now  I  need  go  no  further  for  an  explana- 
tion, than  the  ninth  article,  which  while 
you  quote,  you  either  distort  or  misun- 
derstand. For  if  the  will  of  God  is  the 
highest,  or  remote  cause  of  hardening, 
then  when  man  hardens  his  own  heart, 
he  himself  is  the  proximate  cause.  I 
everywhere  distinguish  between  primary 
and  remote  causes,  and  those  which  are 
mediate  and  proximate  ;  for  while  the 
sinner  finds  la  himself  the  root  of  de- 
praved feeling,  tliere  is  no  reason  why 
he  should  transfer  his  fault  to  God.  I 
have  somewhere  declared  that  to  do  so, 
is  just  to  act  like  the  maid  servant  of 
Medea  in  the  ancient  Poet,  "  I  would," 
says  she,  "  that  the  pines  had  never 
fallen  in  the  grove  of  Pehon,  felled  with 
hatchets  to  the  ground."  For  when 
an  impure  woman  felt  herself  stimulated 


80  ONSECRET 

by  her  own  lust,  to  betray  her  father's 
kingdom,  this  foolish  attendant  accuses 
neither  her  shameless  passion,  nor  the 
allurements  of  Jason,  but  complains  that 
a  ship  had  been  built  in  Gieece.  Thus 
when  a  man  conscious  of  crime,  seeks 
pretexts  of  extenuation  in  remote  causes, 
he  ridiculously  forgets  himself  You 
now  perceive  though  God  in  his  own  way 
hardens  hearts,  yet  every  one  is  justly 
responsible  for  his  own  hardness,  because 
every  one  is  hardened  by  his  own  wick- 
edness. 

The  case  is  different  when  hearts  are 
inclined  to  obey  God.  For  as  by  nature 
we  are  all  prone  to  contumacy,  no  one 
will  desire  to  act  aright,  unless  he  is 
acted  upon.  And  yet  when  the  Scrip- 
ture says  that  hearts  are  prepared  by  God, 
and  that  the  faithful  prepare  themselves 
to  present  to  God,  a  voluntary  worship  ; 
it  is  not  inconsistent  with  itself,  but  shows 
distinctly  that  divine  worshippers  per- 
form their  duty  spontaneously,  and  wiih 
the  voluntary  affection  of  their  hearts, 
and  yet  this  is  not  inconsistent,  with  God 
performing  his  part,  by  the  secret  influence 
of  his  Spirit.     The  case  is  different  as  I 


PROVIDENCB.  81 

have  already  said  in  regard  to  hardening. 
For  God  does  not  govern  the  reprobate 
by  the  spirit  of  regeneration,  but  subjects 
and  dooms  them  to  the  Devil,  and  by  his 
secret  government,  so  manages  their  de- 
praved affections,  that  they  do  nothing 
which  he  has  not  decreed.  These  things, 
therefore,  harmonise  very  well ;  that 
however  God  hardens  whom  he  pleases, 
yet  every  one  is  to  himself  the  cause  of 
his  own  hardening. 

Lest  I  should  be  tedious,  pious,  and 
fair  readers  may  take  the  help  of  this  re- 
mark of  Augustine,  (Book  fifth  against 
Julian,  chap.  3,)  "  Whereas  the  apostle 
declares  that  men  are  given  over  to  vile 
affections,"  this  is  rashly  and  unskilfully 
restricted  to  sufferance,  because  the 
the  same  Paul  elsewhere  joins  powder 
wdth  sufferance,  saying,  "  if  God  willing 
to  show  his  power,  endured  with  much 
patience  the  vessels  of  wrath  fitted  to 
destruction,"  «&c.  And  though  that  holy 
teacher  had  never  spoken  on  this  subject, 
the  authority  of  God  should  of  itself  be 
more  than  enough  for  us.  It  is  not  1  who 
have  said  that  God  takes  aw^ay  under- 
standing from  princes  of  the  earth,  to 
7 


82  0  N    S  E  C  R  E  T 

cause  them  to  err ;  or  that  he  held  the 
heart  of  Pharaoh,  that  it  should  not  be 
turned  to  humanity.  I  have  not  said  that 
God  turned  the  hearts  of  the  nations,  or 
strengthened  them  in  hatred  of  liis  peo- 
ple, or  hissed  for  the  Egyptians  and 
employed  them  as  hammers.  /  have 
not  said  that  Sennacherib  was  a  rod  in 
God's  hand ;  but  the  Spirit  so  pronounces. 
What  ?  when  the  Scriptuie  also  tells  us 
that  Saul  was  seized  by  a  wicked  spirit 
of  God,  will  you  refer  this  to  allowance 
and  permission  merely  ?  How  much 
better  is  the  judgment  of  Augustine, 
(Book  on  Holy  Predestination.)  "  If  Satan 
and  the  wicked  sin,  it  is  of  themselves ; 
if  in  sinning  they  do  this  or  that,  it  is  by 
the  power  of  God  dividing  the  darkness 
as  he  pleases."  Whatever  God  openly 
declares,  you  impute  to  me.  Let  the 
same  Augustine  answer  you  lor  me, 
(On  Grace  and  Free  Will  'to  Val.) 
*'  Scripture  if  diligently  studied,  shows 
not  only  that  God  is  the  Lord  of  the 
good  volitions  of  men,  which  he  himself 
forms  out  of  evil,  and  directs  them  when 
produced  to  good  results  and  eternal 
life  ;  but  that  those  volitions  which  re- 


PROVIDENCE.  8S 

tain  their  worldly  character,  are  so  in 
the  power  of  God,  that  he  by  a  most 
secret,  but  most  just  judgment,  inclines 
them  as  he  pleases,  and  when  he  pleases, 
either  to  confer  blessings,  or  inflict  pun- 
ishments." 


Article  Tenth. 

Satan  is  a  Uai'  by  the  command  of  God, 
Asrainst  the  Tenth* 

Against  the  teutii  they  ar^ne  thus.  If  Satan  is  a  liar 
by  the  command  of  Cioci,  a  liar  is  righteous,  and  Satan 
is  righteous.  For  if  to  couuuand  a  Hei.srighteons,  (as  it 
certainly  is,  if  Calvin  spoak  ir«th,)  then  to  obey  by  lying 
is  also  righteous  ;  for  the  rightenusne.ss  of  obedience  is 
estimated  by  the  righteoasuess  of  the  precept.  And  as 
it  is  unrighteous  to  obey  an  unrightifious  precept,  so  to 
obey  a  righteous  precept  is  rigiiieous.  Now  if  Calvin 
say  that  Satan  is  not  ob-dieiit  in  lying,  that  is,  that  he 
has  no  intention  of  obeying  (iod,  we  will  reply  accord- 
ing to  CLilvin's  own  opinion,  that  this  disobedient  lying 
likewise,  is  done  by  the  command  of  God  ;  and  that  in 
this  disobeJient  lying  also,  Satan  is  obedient;  inasmuch 
as  God  has  commanded  him  not  to  be  obedient  in 
lying. 

J.  Calvhi^s  Reply, 

In    the    tenth    article,   behold   against 
v/hom  you  hurl  your  virulent  darts.    For 


84 


ON    SECRET 


it  is  no  peculiarity  of  mine  that  3'Ou  op- 
pose, but  the  dictate  of  the  Spiiit  of  God. 
Thus   the    Scripture    speaks    expressly, 
whom  shall  I  send,  and  who  will  go  lor 
us ;    and   immediately    after,    God,    ad- 
dressing  Satan,    bids    hirii  go,  to  be   a 
lying    spirit   in    the    mouth   of   all    the 
prophets,  to    deceive  Ahab.     Now^  bark 
as    much   as  you   please  ;  you  will   no 
more  bury  the  glory  of  God  by  ^^our  rail- 
ing, than  you  will  by  spitting  darken  the 
glory  of  the  sun.     Here  too  it  is   better 
to  speak  in  the  words  of  Augustine,  than 
in  my  own.     "'  When  God  testifies   that 
he  sends  false  prophets,  and  that  his  hand 
is  upon  them  that  they  may  deceive,  he 
does  not  mean  that  his  patience  alone  is 
concerned,  but  his  pov/er  also."     As  to 
your    prating    about    Satan    not    being 
obedient  in  lying  b}-   the   command   of 
God,  it  is  not  wonderful  if  you  entangle 
yourself  in  many  knots,  by  not  acknowl- 
edging that  God  in  an  inexplicable  way, 
so  employs  at  his   pleasure  the  working 
of  Satan,  as  to  illustrate  the  justice  and 
equit}^  of  his  own  government ;  without, 
however,    freeing    his   instrument   from 
blame,  w^hom  he  compels  against  his  own 


PROVIDENCE.  85 

will  to  execute  the  divine  judgment. 
Though  your  bitterness  should  rail  a 
hundred  times,  this  certainly  is  not  the 
voice  of  Calvin,  but  of  God ;  "  I  have 
commanded  my  sanctified  ones."  (Is. 
xiii.  3.)  Nov/  if  you  imagine  that  God 
takes  more  to  himself  than  is  proper,  he 
will  himself  find  out  a  way  to  be  freed 
from  vour  accusation. 


Article  Eleventh. 

God  gives  ivill  to  those  doing  wrong ;  he 
even  suo;gcsts  wicked  and  dishonourable 
affections^  not  only  permissivehj  but  efica- 
ciouslij,  and  that  for  his  oivn  glory. 


Aminst  the  Eleventh. 

Against  the  eleventh  they  allege :  Calvin  refers  to 
God  what  belongs  to  the  Devil,  as  the  Scripture  every- 
where testifie.^.  Now  if  God  suggests  wicked  and  dis- 
honourable affections,  and  yet  commands  us  to  resist 
such  atfections,  he  cominmds  ns  to  resist  himself. 
F-very  good  gift  is  from  above,  and  cometh  down  from 
the  Fat  er  of  lights  Are  wicked  afteciinns  even,  a  good 
gift?  Does  darkness  (for  depraved  aitectioiis  are  cer- 
tainly darkness.)  descend  from  the  Father  of  lights? 
W!iy  then  is  he  not  called  the  Father  of  darkness? 
Janes  distinctly  writes  that  no  man  is  temjited  by  God, 
but  every  one  by  liis  own  lust.  But  t(»  suggest  base 
alfections,  is  to   tempt.     Now  as  for  your  salvo  about 


8G  ON    SECRET 

God  doing  this  for  his  own  glory,  they  say  it  is  ridicu- 
lous, for  glory  does  not  ordinarily  accrue  from  lying. 
When  Nebuchadnezzar  experienced  the  divine  justice 
and  power,  in  being  changed  for  his  pride  into  a  brute 
nature,  he  ascribed  glory  to  God,  for  he  perceived  and 
concluded  that  God  is  just. 

It  is  God's  pleasure  to  be  praised  by  all  nations; 
"praise  the  Lord  all  ye  nations."  It  behoves  him, 
therefore,  to  do  those  things,  which  all  nations  may  be 
able  to  know,  and  moreover  praise.  But  no  nation 
will  ever  acknowledge,  that  it  is  just  to  pnnish  men,  for 
what  God  himself  has  suggested.  For  we  ask,  if  God 
should  punish  us  for  having  a  beard,  would  he  not  do 
us  an  injury  ;  when  he,  himself  has  given  us  the  beard, 
and  It  was  not  optional  whether  we  should  have  it  or 
not?  What  man  with  a  beard  could  ever  praise  him  ? 
Now  if  Calvin  will  say  that  this  is  the  secret  Providence 
of  God,  and  to  us  unknown,  we  shall  answer  that  God 
has  indeed  secrets  unknown  to  us  ;  but  so  far  as  justice 
is  concerned,  it  is  known  to  us  and  revealed  in  the  Gos- 
pel: according  to  which  revealed  Gospel,  (as  Paul 
teaches),  and  not  according  to  that  hidden  judgment  of 
Calvin,  God  will  judge  the  world.  And  so  it  will  be 
understood  by  all",  both  righteous  and  wicked.  For  all, 
both  righteous  and  wicked,  will  see  that  it  is  just  that 
they  who  have  disobeyed  the  truth,  (not  hidden  like 
Calvin's,)  but  open  like  that  of  the  Gospel,  should  be 
punished;  and  that  they  who  have  obeyed  it  should 
receive  rewai-d.  "The  wrath  of  God,"  says  Paul, 
"  is  revealed  against  all  ungodliness  and  unrighte- 
ousness of  men,  who  hold  the  truth  in  unrighteous- 
ness." But  if  the  opinion  of  Calvin  is  true,  the  wrath 
of  God  is  revealed  against  a!l  the  innocent.  For  if  he 
suggests  depraved  affections,  he  is  angry  and  hales  them 
before  the  depraved  affections.  For  to  suggest  depraved 
affections  is  a  work  of  hatred  ;  he  consequently  hates 
the  innocent,  inastnuch  as  sin  springs  from  depraved 
affec'ions,  or  raiher  siu  is  depraved  alTectiou. 


PROVIDENCE.  87 

J.  Calviii's  Reply. 

You  o'o  on  imao^mins:  monsters,  that 
having  vanquished  them,  you  may  cele- 
brate a  triumph  over  an  unoffending  ser- 
vant of  God.  The  passage  where  I  have 
ever  spoken  thus,  you  will  not  find  ;  and 
therefore  though  I  were  silent,  your  min- 
gled folly  and  impudence  are  alike  pow- 
erless. If  the  wicked  defile  themselves 
by  slaughter,  adulter}^,  rapine,  fraud,  I 
teach  that  this  comes  of  their  own  wick- 
edness ;  that  God,  however,  who  brirgs 
light  out  of  darkness,  so  rules  within 
them,  by  his  own  secret  and  incompre- 
hensible government,  as  by  means  of 
th^ir  wickedness,  to  execute  his  just  de- 
terminations. If  you  oppose  this,  con- 
tend with  God  himself,  who  will  easily 
receive  your  insane  assaults.  If  you  had 
one  drop  of  modesty  and  docility,  this 
distinction  which  constantly  occurs  in  my 
writings,  would  undoubtedly  appease 
you. 

If  the  wicked  examine  themselves,  the 
testimony  of  conscience  will  abundantly 
convince  them  that  they  must  not  seek 
elsewhere  for  criminality,  because  they 


88  ONSECRET 

find  the  root  of  wickedness  within,  in 
their  own  hearts  ;  and  yet  God  by  sway- 
ing their  vohtions  withersoever  he  plea- 
seth,  makes  a  good  use  of  their  evil. 
Murmur  as  you  please  I  have  now  clear- 
ly shown,  that  in  doing  so,  your  quarrel 
is  not  with  me  but  with  God.  I  would 
that  from  the  heart  you  did  acknowledge 
God  as  the  Father  of  lights,  just  as  the 
Apostle  Paul  defines  him,  (i  Tim.  vi.) 
lest  in  your  audacity  you  break  through 
to  the  inaccessible  light,  nay,  lest  in  your 
sacrilegious  insolence  you  turn  that  light 
into  darkness. 

Moreover,  you  absurdly  infer  from  the 
doctrine  of  James,  because  every  perfect 
gift  descends  from  the  Father  of  lights, 
therefore  awful  judgments  that  strike  the 
pious  with  fear  aud  trembling,  do  not 
descend  from  the  same  source.  You  still 
more  absurdly  ask  me,  whether  I  reckon 
vicious  and  perverse  affections  among 
good  gifts  ;  as  if  forsooth  the  spirit  of 
wisdom,  judgment  and  prudence,  differ- 
ed not  at  all  from  the  spirit  of  sleep  and 
giddiness  ;  as  if  too  the  spit  it  of  regene- 
ration, whicli  renews  the  faithful  in  the 
image  of  God,  were  none  other  than  that 


PROVIDENCE.  89 

evil  spirit  of  God,  who  drives  the  repro- 
bate to  phrenzy,  as  we  read  of  Saul. 

With  similar  shamelessness  you  cla- 
mour about  m}^  teaching  that  God  exe- 
cutes his  determinations  for  his  own 
glory,  by  means  of  Satan  and  the  repro- 
bate. That  Satan  is  the  instrument  of 
his  anger,  God  clearly  testifies  both  by 
his  word,  and  by  experience.  Now  with 
what  desigTi  shall  we  say  that  God  does 
work  by  the  hand  of  Satan,  if  not  to  il- 
lustrate his  own  glory  ?  You  think  you 
elude  this  by  a  witty  retort,  that  righte- 
ousness is  not  ascribed  to  God  on  ac- 
count of  lying  ;  but  w^ill  you  hinder  God 
from  bringing  forth  from  your  wicked- 
ness, the  materials  of  his  own  glory  ? 
Certainly  by  nothing  less  than  his  out- 
rageous pride,  could  Pharaoh  prevent  the 
divine  glory  from  shining  forih,  inasmuch 
as  he  had  been  ordained  to  this  very- 
end. 

You  allege  that  Nebuchadnezzar  (Dan. 
iv.  34,)  gave  glory  to  God  when  he  con- 
fessed his  justice  ;  and  to  show  you  with 
what  confidence  I  despise  your  blunt 
darts,  I  wiUingiy  lend  you  a  hand  in  this 
matter,   and  suirgest  what  vou   did  not 


"90  0  N    S  E  C  R  E  T 

think  of;  that  when  Joshua  exhorted 
Achan  to  give  glory  to  G(jd,  it  is  with  no 
other  design  than  that  the  latter  should 
disclose  the  lie,  and  discover  his  own  sa- 
crilege. 

Bat  the  question  now  is,  whether  there 
is  only  one  way  of  illustrating  the  divine 
glory,  for  if  this  do  not  shine  forth  by  the 
lies  of  men,  Paul  must  have  been  at  fault, 
when  he  said,  "  let  God  be  true  and  every 
man  a  liar,"  and  immediately  asks,  "  if  our 
unrighteousness  commend  the  righteous- 
ness of  God,  is  God  himself  unrighteous?" 

As  to  your  objection,  that  God  would 
be  praised  for  his  benefits,  it  is  indeed 
true,  provided  you  allow,  that  the  wood 
out  of  which  God  brings  and  leads  forth 
his  praises,  is  both  thick  and  extensive. 
And  here  your  pride,  in  osttmtatiously 
despising  the  art  of  reasoning,  is  suitably 
punished,  as  you  are  always  arguing  ne- 
gatively trom  the  species  to  the  genus. 
Nor  will  I  honour  with  any  long  refuta- 
tion your  scurrilous  jibe  that  God  were 
unjust  to  punish  men  for  having  a  beard, 
inasmuch  as  they  only  carry  the  beard 
which  he  himself  has  created.  For  who 
has  ever  said  that  iniquity  was  created 


PROVIDENCE.  9! 

by  God  ?  Though  he  does  ordain  it  in' 
his  incomprehensible  counsel,  to  just  and 
righteous  ends.  Begone,  then,  with  that 
foolery  of  yours,  of  confounding  the  beard 
which  naturally  grows  in  sleep,  with  vo- 
luntary wickedness.  Play  the  madman 
as  you  please,  this  will  remain  fixed  with 
us,  that  they  are  justly  punished,  whose 
wicked  affections  are  ordained  and  di- 
rected by  God  to  the  execution  of  his 
judgments,  because  their  own  consci- 
ences condemn  them.  And  see  how  you 
entangle  yourself;  for  while  you  acknow- 
ledge that  God's  secrets  are  unknown  to 
us,  you  on  the  other  hand  object  that  his 
justice  is  known  to  us.  But  if  any  one 
should  ask  you,  is  there  any  justice  in 
God's  secrets,  or  is  there  not,  will  you 
deny  that  there  is  any  ? 

Moreover,  how  will  you  say  that  God's 
justice  is  known  to  us,  when  David  and 
Paul  look  up  to  it  with  astonishment,  be- 
cause their  sense  fails  ihem  ?  Do  the 
mighty  abyss,  and  the  rich  depth  of  wis- 
dom, in  the  judgments  of  God,  contain 
justice  in  themselves  ?  Why  then  will 
you  deny  that  God  is  just,  whenever  the 


92  ON    SECRET 

reason  of  his  operations  is  concealed 
from  you. 

As  a  distinction  worthy  of  notice,  is 
made  in  the  Book  of  Job,  (c.  xxviii.)  be- 
tween the  unsearchable  wisdom  of  God, 
from  which  the  human  race  is  warned 
off,  and  that  wisdom  which  has  been 
delivered  to  us  in  the  law ;  so  you  also, 
unless  3'Ou  mean  to  confound  everything, 
should  have  distinguished  between  that 
profound  and  admirable  justice,  which 
cannot  be  comprehended  by  the  human 
mind,  and  the  rule  of  justice  which  is 
prescribed  in  the  law,  for  the  regulation 
of  the  life  of  man.  I  acknowledge  that 
God  will  judge  the  world,  according  to 
the  revealed  doctrine  of  the  Gospel ;  but 
he  will  at  the  same  time  vindicate  the 
equity  of  his  secret  providence  against 
all  wranglers. 

Now,  if  you  had  the  smallest  experi- 
mental acquaintance,  with  that  Gospel 
which  you  prate  about,  you  would  easily 
understand  how  God  remunerates  the 
justice  which  is  commanded  in  his  law, 
and  never  defrauds  those  of  the  promised 
crown,  who  heartily  obey  his  precepts  ; 
and  yet  justly  punishes  all  the  disobe- 


PROVIDENCE.  93 

dient,  whom  he  also  terms  his  servants, 
because  he  has  their  hearts  in  his  hand. 
Thus,  Nebuchadnezzar,  a  furious  robber, 
and  slave  of  Satan,  is  not  without  reason 
called  by  Jeremiah  a  servant  of  God. 
(Jer.  XXV.  9.)  And  if  I  have  taught  that 
God  opens  up  a  way  for  his  own  purposes, 
by  inciting  the  hearts  of  men  this  way 
and  that,  why  should  the  statement  be 
imputed  to  me  as  a  crime,  when  prophets 
have  said  precisely  the  same  thing ;  these 
being  in  fact  the  words  of  the  sacred  his- 
tory, (2  Sam.  xxiv.  1,)  "  And  again  the 
anger  of  the  Lord  was  kindled  against 
Israel ;  and  he  moved  David  against 
them  to  say,  Go,  numbei  the  people." 


Article  Twelfth. 

The  wicJced.,  bij  their  wiclcedness,  do  God's 
work  rather  than  their  own. 

Against  the  Twelfth, 

Of  (he  twelfth  they  discourse  thus,  if  it  be  so,  God  is 
ani;ry  with  what  is  good  ;  for  if  impiety  is  the  work  of 
God,  impiety  is  good ;  for  all  the  works  of  God  are 
good.     And  if  impiety  is  good,  then  piety  is  evil,  inas- 

8 


94  ON     SECRET 

much  as  it  is  the  opposite  ofimpiety.  Therefore,  when 
Scripture  ?ays,  "  hate  evil,"'  "love  good,"'  it  enjoins  the 
h)ve  of  impiety,  and  the  hatred  of  piety.  They  allege 
besides,  that  such  an  article,  savours  sufficJeotly  of  a 
kind  of  Libertinism,  ^and  they  are  surprised  you  are  so 
hostile  to  Libertines. 

J.  Calvhi's  Reply. 

I  again  testify  before  God,  angels,  and 
the  whole  world,  that  I  never  spake  thus, 
and  that  what  was  correctl}^  spoken  by 
me,  is  most  wickedly  and  calumniously 
perverted  by  you.  But  if  it  seem  absurd 
to  you  that  the  wicked  should  do  God's 
w^ork,  upbraid  Jeremiah,  whose  words 
these  are  "  Cursed  is  the  man  who 
doeth  God's  work  neghgently."  'Now, 
he  refers  to  a  massacre,  which  you  will 
not  clear  of  criminality,  as  it  is  manifest, 
it  was  prompted  by  avarice,  crueUy,  and 
pride.  The  Chaldeans  were  impelled  by 
their  own  ambition,  and  lust  of  plunder, 
to  forget  equity,  and  inhumanly  to  wade 
through  rapine  and  carnnge.  But  as  it 
pleased  God  by  their  hands  to  punish  the 
Moabites,  their  wickedness  did  not  pre- 
vent the  execution  of  the  divine  judgment. 
Here,  dog,  your  bark  is,  then  impiety  is 
good  ;  as  if  God  were  impious,  when  he 


PROVIDENCE.  95 

Rcc  mn  -^("In'es  in  his  own  wonderfal  way, 
hui.un  wickedness,  to  a  different  end 
froui  that  intended  by  the  perpetrator. 
Nay,  you  scruple  not  to  taunt  me  with 
th.^  Libertines,  a  sect  whose  ravings  have 
been  by  me  especially  exposed,  so  that  I 
have  no  new  defence  to  offer. 


Article  Thirteenth. 

We  sin  necessarily  by  the  design  of  God, 
when  we  sin  by  our  own,  or  by  chance. 

Article  Fourteenth. 

The  wickedness  vjhich  men  jjerpetrate  by 
their  own  volition,  irroceeds  also  from  the 
volition  of  God, 

j^^ainst  the  Tiirteenth  and  Fourteenth. 

Against  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth,  they  argne  in 
this  way.  If  we  sin  necessarily,  uU  adinonitions  are  in 
vain.  In  vain  are  the  people  admonished  by  Jeremiah, 
"  I  set  belbre  you  the  way  of  life  and  death.  Whoever 
thall  remiin  in  this  city,  shall  die  by  tiie  sword,  by  f-i- 
mine,  or  pestilence:  but  he  who  flees  to  th.e  Chaldeans 
shal:  live."'  TfM-se  things,  I  say,  were  decl.ired  to  them 
in  vai;i,  if  it  weve  as  impossible  for  tbem  io  flee  lo  the 
Clraldeaii«f,  as  to  swallow  a  mountain.  Now  if  Calvin 
shall  say,  that  precepts  are  given  for  the  purpose  of  ren- 


96  ON    SECRET 

dering  men  inexcusable,  we  reply  that  this  is  futile.  For 
if  you  command  your  son  to  eat  a  rock,  and  he  do  it  not, 
he  is  no  more  inexcusable  after  the  injunction  than  be- 
fore. In  the  same  way  if  God  say  to  me  do  not  steal, 
and  I  steal  necessarily,  and  I  can  no  more  abstain  from 
stealing,  than  I  can  eat  a  rock,  1  am  no  more  inexcusable 
after  the  precept  than  before,  nor  more  excusable,  before 
the  precept  than  after. 

In  fine,  if  Calvin's  opinion  is  true,  a  man  is  inexcusa- 
ble even  before  the  precept;  so  that  there  is  no  occasion 
for  a  precept  to  ensure  that  inexcusableness.  For  if  the 
wicked  man  is  reprobate,  before  he  is  wicked,  that  is, 
before  he  exists,  viz.  from  Eternity,  and  so  sins  neces- 
sarily, he  is  already  inexcusable,  and  condemned  before 
the  precept,  which  is  against  all  laws  divine  and  human. 
For  all  laws  condemn  a  man  after  the  crime,  and  on  ac- 
count of  the  crime.  But  that  God  of  Calvin  condemned 
and  reprobated  the  wicked  before  they  existed,  not  to 
say  before  they  were  wicked,  or  had  sinned ;  and  because 
he  condemned  them  before  they  sinned,  he  compels  them 
to  sin,  that  he  may  appear,  forsooth,  to  have  condemned 
them  justly.  In 'fine,  Calvin,  they  here  contrast  your 
God,  and  theirs  in  this  way. 

The  Nature  of  a  False  God. 

A  false  God  is  slow  to  mercy,  prone  to  anger,  creating 
the  greatest  part  of  the  world  for  destruction,  and  pre- 
destinating them  not  only  to  damnation,  but  to  the  causes 
of  damnation.  Therefore  he  decreed  from  eternity,  and 
still  determines,  and  brings  it  about,  that  they  should  sin 
necessarily,  so  that  neither  thefts,  nor  adulteries,  nor 
homicides  are  committed,  except  by  his  will  and  impulse. 
For  he  suggests  to  them  wicked  and  base  affections,  not 
only  permissively  but  efficaciously,  and  hardens  them  ; 
so  that  while  they  live  impiously,  they  do  God's  work 
rather  than  their  own,  and  cannot  do  otherwise.  He 
makes  Satan  a  liav ;  so  that  it  is  no  longer  Satan,  but  the 
God  of  Calvin,  who  is  the  father  of  lies,  as  he  has  often 
one  thing  in  his  mouth,  and  another  in  his  heart. 


P  R  O  V  I  D  E  .X  C  B  .  9T 

The  Nature  of  the  True  God. 

Bnt  the  God  vv'r.om  nature  and  reason,  and  f^cripture 
proclaim  is  evidently  oppo.^ed  to  tlie  other,  for  he  is 
prone  to  mercy,  and  slow  to  anger.  He  created  the 
comaion  father  of  all  in  his  own  imn^e,  like  himself,  that 
he  might  place  him  in  paradi.^e;  and  endow  him  w;th  a 
blessed  existence.  This  God  wishes  all  to  be  saved,  and 
none  to  peri.ii ;  and  therefore  sent  his  Son  to  earth, 
whose  riirhteon^ness  more  than  abounded  where  sin 
abounded,  and  the  light  of  whose  righteousness  illumines 
every  man  tiiat  comes  into  the  world,  while  he  exclaims, 
"  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labour,  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest."  He  suggests  good  and  hon- 
ouiable  affections,  and  frees  men  from  the  necessity  of 
sinirng  into  wh'ch  they  had  cast  themselves  by  disobe- 
dience, and  hcfi.s  all  manner  of  s.ckiiess  and  disease 
ainon^  the  peopia,  so  that  he  never  denied  a  favour.to 
any  one  that  be.;ouj;ht  him. 

No.v  th'.s  Go  J  comas  to  destroy  the  works  of  that 
Ca'.vinis'ic  God,  and  to  turn  him  out  of  doors.  And 
thase  two  Gods  as  they  are  by  nature  Gontrary  to  one 
another,  so  t  Jey  beget  c;iildren  equally  unlike.  The  one 
produces  children  who  are  merciless,  proud,  savage, 
envious,  sanguinary,  false,  thinking  one  thing,  and 
speaking  another,  impatient,  malicious,  seditious, 
contention?,  ambitious,  avaricious,  lovers  of  plea- 
sure, more  than  lovers  of  God;  in  a  word,  filled  with 
ail  bad  and  vile  atfections,  whic!i  their  Father  himself 
inspires  them  with.  But  the  other  God  produces  men, 
who  are  mer  iful,  modest,  meek,  benevolent,  beneficent, 
abhorring  blood,  open,  speaking  truth  front  the  fulness 
of  the  heart,  patient,  henign,  jdacable,  peaceable,  abhor- 
ring quarrels  and  strife,  despisers  of  honour,  liberal, 
lovers  of  God,  more  than  tlie  lovers  of  })leasure  ;  in  fine 
fi'h.'d  with  all  good  and  honourable  affections,  which 
ti,eiro.vn  Fatlier  inspires  them  with. 

^^uc'i  are  tri.'  things.  Oh  Calvin,  which  your  adversa 
ries  allege  respecting  your  doctrine  ;  and  they  advise 
men  to  judge  of  the  doctrine  bv  the  fruit.     Now  they 
8* 


98  ON    SECRET 

affirm  that  you  and  your  disciples,  bring  forth  many  of 
the  fruits  of  your  God  ;  for  thai  you  are  generally  litigi- 
ous, eager  for  vengeance,  tenacious  and  mindful  of  an 
injury,  and  tainted  with  the  other  vices  which  your  Fa- 
ther inspires.  But  if  any  one  should  say  that  this  is  not 
the  fault  of  the  doctrine  which  is  sound,  and  does  not 
produce  such  men  ;  they  reply  that  it  does  produce  such 
men,  which  is  evident  from  the  fact,  that  many  who  have 
adopted  that  creed,  are  become  such,  while  formerly  they 
were  not  so  wicked.  Whereas  those  who  believe  the 
doctrine  of  Christ  become  beUer;  but  they  say  that 
your  doctrine  evidently  makes  men  worse. 

Besides,  when  you  maintain  that  you  have  sound  doc- 
trine, they  reply  that  you  are  not  to  be  believed.  For, 
if  your  God  very  often  says  one  thing,  and  thinks  and 
wills  another,  there  is  reason  to  fear  that  in  imitation  of 
your  God,  you  are  doing  the  same  thing,  and  deceiving 
men. 

It  is  true,  I  have  at  one  time,  been  rather  fond  of  your 
doctrine,  and  have  defended  it  though  it  has  not  been  al- 
together satisfactory  to  me ;  b^^cause  I  have  attributed  so 
much  to  your  authority,  as  to  imagine  it  unlawful  even 
to  think  anything  in  opposition  to  it.  But  now  that  I 
have  listened  to  the  arguments  of  your  adversaries,  I 
have  nothing  to  reply.  Your  disciples  doubtless  attempt 
a  reply,  and  among  tlieir  own  partizans,  loudly  boast  of 
the  truth;  but  when  they  close  with  your  adversaries, 
they  waver,  and  seek  a  poor  protection  in  your  books. 
For  your  reasons  are  obscure,  and  are  almost  entirely 
of  the  sort,  which  fall  out  of  the  memory,  as  soon  as  the 
book  is  laid  aside,  and  yield  no  conviction  to  opposers. 
Whereas  the  arguments  of  your  adversaries,  are  clear, 
keen,  easily  remembered,  and  apprehensible  by  the  il- 
literate— the  very  description  of  men  who  chiefly  follow- 
ed Christ.  Hence  it  happens  that  your  disciples,  in 
general,  lean  more  on  your  authority,  than  on  reason. 
And  when  they  cannot  refute  their  opponents,  they  re- 
gard them  as  heretics,  and  obstinate  persons,  withdraw 
from  their  society  and  warn  all  to  do  the  same.     Now, 


PROVIDENCE.  99 

as  it  is  my  opinion,  that  we  should  attend  to  what  is  said, 
and  not  to  the  person  speaking,  so  I  judge  that  all  must 
be  lieard.  and  every  thing  proved,  that  what  is  good  may 
be  held  fast. 

Wheiefore,  Oh  Calvin,  if  yon  have  any  true,  plain, 
solid  arguments,  by  which  the  adversaries  may  be  repel- 
led, I  entreat  you  to  publish  them  for  the  defence  of  the 
truth.  You  know  what  is  written,  "  a  month  and  a  wis- 
dom shall  be  given  you,  which  none  shall  bo  able  to 
resist."  For  my  part,  wherever  I  can  lay  hold  of  truth, 
I  am  prepared  to  follow  ;  as  well  as  to  exhort  others  to 
do  the  same.  But  if  by  chance  you  are  mistaken,  I  be- 
seech you,  Calvin,  give  glory  to  God.  That  will  be  more 
honourable  to  you,  than  to  persevere  in  error.  If  you 
are  just  and  true,  I  do  not  think  I  need  entertain  any 
fears  about  your  indignation,  on  account  of  this  epistle, 
lathe  first  place,  because  it  belongs  to  you  to  be  informed 
of  these  things ;  and  in  the  next  place,  because  if  you 
feel  (as  you  say,)  that  all  things  come  to  pass  necessarily, 
you  will  believe  also  that  it  was  impossible,  that  this  let- 
ter should  not  have  been  written  by  me.     Farewell. 


J.  Cahiii's  Reply. 

What  you  mean  in  the  last  article  but 
one,  I  no  more  understand,  than  if  you 
intended  to  confound  human  apprehen- 
sion by  magical  mutterings.  For  what 
is  it  to  sin  by  chance  f  And  who,  ex- 
cept yourself  has  conjured  up  such  mon- 
sters ?  I  have  said  somewhere,  that 
those  things  which  seem  to  happen  by 
chance,  are  governed  by  the  secret  Pro- 
vidence of  God.     Who  will  allow  you  to 


100  ON    SECRET 

infer  from  this  that  sin  is  fortuitous  ?  And 
then  as  for  what  is  found  in  my  writings, 
did  it  originate  with  me  ?  Or  has  it  not 
rather  God  for  its  author  ?  If  the  hatch- 
et of  a  man  cutting  the  branches  of  a  tree, 
fall  and  wound  the  head  of  a  passenger, 
will  you  regard  this  as  a  matter  of 
chance  ?  But  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  Moses, 
declares  that  such  a  man  is  slain  by  God. 
Will  you  say  that  God,  like  one  drunk, 
deals  his  blows  at  random,  right  and  left, 
without  discrimination  ? 

Now  if  you  fancy  thcit  men  sin  without 
the  knowledge  of  God,  how  will  God 
judge  the  world  ?  And  if  the  transac- 
tions of  the  world  escape  his  notice,  how 
will  he  have  the  advantage  of  mortals  ? 
Because  I  maintain  that  God  is  perfect- 
ly aware  of  the  sins  of  men,  you  go  so 
far  in  your  phrenzy,  as  to  accuse  me  of 
framirig  a  false  God.  If  I  should  grant 
you  what  you  demand,  that  God  is  igno- 
rant of  sin,  what  kind  of  Gofl  pray  you 
will  he  be  f  And  will  you  still  boast  tb.at 
the  people  are  with  you,  when  depriving 
God  of  intelligence,  and  dignifying  him 
with  the  same  title  that  Lucretius  did  his 


PROVIDENCE.  101 

images,  you  fabricate  a  dead  idol  in  his 
place  ? 

As  to  your  argument  that  teaching  is 
supertluous,  precepts  useless,  admoni- 
tions vain,  upbraiding  and  threats  ab- 
surd, if  men  sin  necessarily  ;  if  Augus- 
tine's book  to  Valentinus,  "  Concerning 
Corruption  and  Grace,"  a  work  expressly 
devoted  to  this  subject,  is  not  sufficient  to 
dissipate  these  objections,  3^ou  are  un- 
worthy to  hear  a  word  from  me.  As  my 
refutation  of  Piohius,  and  vour  master 
Servetus,  in  regard  to  this  calumny,  is 
quite  satisfactory  to  all  reasonable  and 
candid  readers,  I  will  nov/  merely  re- 
turn this  brief  answer  to  your  boasting. 
If  you  will  allow  God  to  command  no- 
thing, that  man  has  not  power  to  obey, 
God  will  make  it  plain  enough,  when  he 
shall  place  you  at  his  tribunal,  that  he 
made  no  vain  assertion  by  the  mouth  of 
his  apostle,  when  he  declared  that  to  be 
impossible  to  the  law,  which  he  himself 
performed  by  his  own  grace.  (Rom.  viii. 
4.)  It  is  certain  that  a  perfect  righteous- 
ness is  exhibited  in  the  law,  which  would 
be  prepared  and  set  forth  to  all,  if  our 
strength   were   adequate  to  yield  obedi- 


102  ON    SECRET 

ence  to  the  commnnds  of  God.  Now 
Paul  declares  it  was  impossible  to  attain 
to  rigljteousness  by  the  law.  What  dis- 
pute then  have  you  on  this  point  with 
Calvin  't  It"  you  steal  necessarily,  you 
suppose  that  you  aie  no  less  excusable, 
after  the  precept  than  before.  Paul,  on 
the  contrary,  when  he  confesses  that  he 
was  sold  under  sin,  at  tlie  same  time 
freely  exclaims,  that  the  law  worketh 
wrath,  because  the  shield  of  necessity  is 
in  vain  held  forth,  v.hen  every  man  is 
convicted  by  his  conscience  of  voluntary 
mahgnity.  Tell  me,  when  the  hook  was 
in  your  hand,  of  late  years,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  stealing  wood,  to  warm  your 
house,  was  it  not  your  ovv-n  will  that 
prompted  you  to  steal  ?  If  this  alone 
suffice  for  your  just  condemnation,  that 
knowinolv  and  willinolv  vou  snatched  at 
a  base  and  wicked  gain,  by  your  neigh- 
bour's loss,  you  may  rave  as  you  please 
about  necessity,  without  being  in  the 
least  justly  acquitted.  x\s  to  your  ob- 
jection, that  no  one  is  justly  condemned, 
unless  on  account  of  crime,  and  after 
crime,  I  have  no  quarrel  with  you  on  the 
former  point,  since  I  everywhere  teach 


PROVIDENCE.  103 

that  no  one  perishes,  except  b}^  the  just 
judgment  of  God.  At  the  same  tiiiie  I 
may  not  dissemble  that  a  secret  v^nom 
lurks  in  your  l?ingu'jge  ;  for  if  the  simiH- 
lude  you  propose  is  admitted,  God  will 
be  unjust  for  involving  the  whole  family 
of  Abraham,  in  the  guilt  of  original  sin. 

You  deny  that  it  is  lawful  lor  God  to 
condemn  any  man,  except  on  account  of 
actual  sin.  Innumerable  infants  are,  to 
this  day,  hurried  out  of  life.  Discharge 
now  your  virulence  against  God,  for  pre- 
cipitating into  eternal  death  innocent 
babes  torn  from  their  mother's  breasts. 
Whoever  detests  not  this  blasphemy, 
when  it  is  openly  detected,  may  curse 
me  to  his  heart's  content.  For  I  have  no 
right  to  demand  exemption  from  the  rail- 
ings of  those  whr>  spare  not  the  Almighty 
himself. 

As  to  the  latter  point,  do  you  not  see 
how  offensive  is  your  loquacity.  For 
even  your  master  Servetus,  and  Pighius, 
and  such  like  dogs,  would  say  at  least, 
that  those  were  condemned  before  the 
creation  of  the  world,  whom  God  fore- 
knew to  be  worthy  of  death.  You,  for- 
sooth, will  not  allow"  him  to  doom  any 


104  ON    SECRET 

one  to  eternal  death,  till  such  time  as  he 
becomes  obnoxious  to  earthly  judges,  by 
the  actual  perpetration  of  crime.  Hence 
let  the  reader  learn  how  prodigious  must 
be  that  phrenzy,  which  unhesitatingly 
subverts  by  jeer  and  banter,  the  whole 
course  oi^  divine  justice. 

It  remains  that  I  vindicate  the  glory  of 
the  true  and  eternal  God,  from  your  sa- 
crilegious revilings.  You  loudly  charge 
me  with  thrusting  the  Devil  into  the  place 
of  the  true  God.  My  defence  is  brief 
and  easy.  As  all  my  writings  clearly 
testify,  that  I  had  no  other  design,  than 
that  the  whole  w^orld,  should  piously  and 
holily  devote  itself  to  God  ;  and  that  all 
should  cultivate  in  good  conscience  true 
righteousness  with  each  other ;  so  my  life 
is  not  inconsistent  with  my  doctrine  ;  nor 
will  I  be  so  unjust  to  the  grace  of  God,  as 
to  compare  myself  with  you,  and  those 
like  you,  whose  innocence  is  nothing 
more  than  compliment  and  self-flattery. 
This  only  will  I  say,  if  any  upright  and 
fair  judge  should  decide  betwixt  us,  he 
would  readily  recognise  reverence  for 
God,  both  in  my  writings,  and  in  my 
life ;  while  everything   proceeding  from 


PRO  V  IDENCE  .  105 

you,  savours  of  nothing   but  mere  bur- 
lesque upon  religion. 

Now,  briefly  to  confound  3^our  calum- 
nies, can  anything  surpass  your  want  of 
principle  in  contending  that  God  would 
be  slow  to  mercy,  and  prone  to  anger,  if 
he  ordained  the  greater  part  of  the  w^orld 
to  eternal  death  ?  Beyond  all  question, 
fancy  what  kind  of  God  you  please,  he 
alone  is  to  be  worshipped  by  all  the 
pious  ;  who,  with  the  exception  of  the 
family  of  Abraham,  suffered  the  whole 
human  family  to  wander  in  fatal  dark- 
ness, for  more  than  twenty-five  hundred 
years.  If  you  charge  him  with  cruelty, 
for  determining  that  innumerable  nations 
should  be  overwhelmed  in  death,  while 
one  family  alone  was  distinguished  by 
the  life  giving  light ;  the  answer  is  evi- 
dent, that  while  the  nations  were  spared 
from  day  to  day,  and  the  world  was  not 
swallowed  up  a  hundred  times  in  a  year, 
just  as  often  did  God  afford  illustrious 
displays  of  his  patience.  Nor  in  truth 
has  Paul  any  hesitation  iu  praising  God's 
lenity  and  long-suffering,  even  when  he 
maintains,  that  the  vessels  of  wrath  were 
fitted  for  destruction,  by  his  secret  de- 
9 


106  ON    SECRET 

cree.  If  you  are  not  satisfied  with  his 
testimony,  I  think  I  may  safely  despise 
vour  barkino^.  For  God  n  jeds  no  defence 
at  my  hand,  but  will  sufficiently  vindi- 
cate his  own  justice,  although  all  impure 
tongues  should  emulousl}^  conspire  to 
overshadow  it.  Wherefore,  3^ou  and 
your  gang,  may  hurl  aloft  your  blasphe- 
mies as  you  please,  to  fall  back  again  on 
your  own  heads.  It  is  no  hardship  to 
me,  patiently  to  endure  your  levilings, 
provided  the  God  whom  I  serve  is  not 
reached  ;  and  I  must  be  allowed  to  sum- 
mon you  to  his  tribunal,  where  he  will  in 
his  own  time  appear,  to  avenge  that  doc- 
trine, w^hich  in  my  person  you  furiously 
oppose. 

Readers  of  any  discernment  will  ap- 
preciate the  value  of  your  discourse, 
about  the  nature  of  the  true  God,  when 
they  observe  that  in  all  inquiry  upon  the 
subject,  you  make  common  sense  the 
starting  point.  The  existence  of  God  it 
is  tiue  was  admitted  by  all  nations  and 
ages ;  since  the  principle  and  seed  of 
this  knowledge,  was  naturally  implanted 
in  the  mind  of  man.  But  how  shall  rea- 
son define  what  God  is,  when  with  all 


PROVIDENCE.  107 

her  perspicacity,  she  can  do  nothing  but 
turn  the  tiuth  of  God  into  a  He,  thereby 
adulterating  all  the  knowledge  and  light 
of  true  faith  and  rehgion  ? '  The  Holy 
Spirit  commands  us  to  become  fools,  if 
we  would  be  disciples  of  the  heaven- 
ly doctrine  ;  inasmuch  as  the  natural 
man  is  unable  to  receive  or  taste  aught 
of  it.  You  on  the  other  hand  would  have 
the  human  faculty  decide  on  the  myste- 
ries of  God  ;  and  reason,  which  in  its 
bhndness,  utterly  extinguishes  the  divine 
glory,  you  not  only  set  up  as  a  guide  and 
mistress,  but  presume  to  prefer  to  Scrip- 
ture itself.  So  that,  it  is  not  wonderful 
if  you  allow  the  most  opposite  religions 
to  be  promiscuously  confounded ;  esteem- 
ing the  Turk  steeped  in  the  dreams  of 
Mahomet,  and  adoring,  I  know  not  W'hat, 
unknown  divinity,  no  less  a  w^orshipper 
of  the  true  God,  than  the  Christian,  who 
with  the  unwavering  faith  of  the  Gospel, 
calls  on  the  Father  of  our  Redeemer. 
Now,  although  so  many  indirect  jeers  at 
all  the  first  principles  of  our  faith  do  not 
aloud  declare  that  you  are  the  open, 
earnest  patron  of  the  infidels,  yet  your 
object  was,  by  palliating  the  superstitions 


108  ON    SECRET 

of  all  nations,  to  subvert  the  religion  of 
the  sacred  oracles  of  the  true  God.  From 
that  reason  doubtless,  which  is  the  moth- 
er of  all  errors,  has  sprung  that  God  of 
yours,  who  indiscriminately  resolves  that 
all  shall  be  saved.  As  if  forsooth,  the 
word  election  which  occurs  so  often  in 
the  Scriptures,  had  absolutely  no  mean- 
ing ;  when  the  law,  the  prophets,  and 
the  Gospel,  everywhere  proclaim,  that 
they  are  called  and  enlightened  to  salva- 
tion, who  were  chosen  in  God's  eternal 
counsel  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world ;  and  unambiguously  declare  that 
the  fountain  and  cause  of  life,  is  the  free 
love  of  God,  which  embraced  not  all,  but 
whom  he  pleased.  What  do  you  gain  by 
a  hundred  railings  on  the  other  side  ?  You 
bewilder  the  simple  by  raising  a  mist, 
about  God  wishing  all  to  be  saved.  If 
this  is  inconsistent  with  that  election, 
predestinated  his  own  children  to  life,  I 
demand  why  the  way  of  salvation  is  not 
thrown  open  to  all.  That  eulogium  of 
the  law  is  well  known  and  celebrated, 
*'  behold  I  have  this  day  set  before  you 
hfe  and  death."  If  God  determined  to 
o^ather  all  v/ithout  distinction  into  salva- 


PROVIDENCE.  109 

tion,  why  did  be  not  set  life  equally  be- 
fore all,  instead  of  distinj^aishino- but  one 
nation  by  this  prerogative  ;  and  that  for 
no  other  reason,  if  we  believe  Moses,  ex- 
cept his  free  favour  for  those,  whom  he 
chose  for  his  own. 

You  say  that  Christ  was  divinely  sent, 
in  order  that  his  righteousness  might  su- 
perabound  wherever  sin  abounded.  But 
this  one  word  proves,  that  you  came 
forth  from  beneath,  at  the  prompting  of 
Satan.  You  insolently  deride  Christ, 
while  you  seek  to  cover  up  everv,  the 
grossest,  falsehood,  in  the  colours  of 
piety.  For  if  the  righteousness  of  Christ 
has  superabounded,  wherever  sin  abound- 
ed, the  condition  of  Pilate  or  Judas,  will 
be  no  worse  than  that  of  Peter  or  Paul. 
And  though  I  should  say  nothing  of 
Pilate,  Paul  denies  that  the  righteousness 
of  Christ,  can  be  separated  from  the  faith 
of  the  Gospel,  (Eph.  vi.  9.)  Will  you  tell 
us  what  Gospel  was  in  France,  and  other 
remote  nations  at  the  time  when  Christ 
lived  on  earth  ?  What  ?  Was  God  not 
the  same  before  the  coming  of  his  Son  ? 
Why  then  did  he  seal  up  the  treasure  of 
salvation  till  the  fulness  of  time  ^  You 
9* 


110  ON    SECRET 

must  burst  into  laughter  at  Paul's 
doctrine,  about  the  mystery  being  hid 
before  in  God,  which  was  revealed  in 
the  promulgation  of  the  Gospel.  And 
now  that  the  sound  of  the  Gospel  is  pro- 
claimed, the  righteousness  of  Christ 
comes  to  none  but  those,  who  receive  it 
by  faith.  Now  whence  have  you  faith  ? 
If  you  answer  by  hearing ;  it  is  indeed 
true  ;  but  the  hearing  is  not  independent 
of  the  special  revelation  of  the  Spirit, 
Isaiah  (liii.  1,)  exclaims  in  surprise,  at 
the  fewness  of  those  to  whom  the  arm  of 
the  Lord  is  revealed  ;  and  when  Paul 
restricts  the  gift  of  faith  to  the  elect,  he 
refers  to  that  passage  as  evidence.  You 
allow  no  distinction.  Christ  indeed 
cries,  "  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labour," 
but  he  also  exclaims  in  another  place, 
"  no  man  comes  to  me,  except  the  Father 
draw  him."  Nor  does  he  contradict  him- 
self, when  inviting  all  without  exception 
by  the  external  voice,  he  yet  declares 
that  no  man  perceives  anything,  except 
as  it  is  given  him  from  heaven  ;  and  that 
none  come  to  him  except  those  who  are 
given  him  by  the  Father. 

Another  passage  you  no  less  foully  be- 


PROVIDENCE.  Ill 

smear,  with  your  swinish  snout ;  (John 
i.  4,)  alleging  that  every  man  that 
comes  into  the  world,  is  illuminated  with 
the  light  of  Christ's  righteousness.  As 
if  John  did  not  add  immediately  after ; 
"the  light  shineth  in  darkness,  and  the 
darkness  comprehended  it  not ;"  intend- 
ino-  to  declare,  that  w^hatever  reason  and 
intelli2:ence  had  been  oiven  to  men  at 
first,  were  suffocated  and  ahuost  destroy- 
ed ;  and  that  the  only  remedy  remain- 
ino;,  is  the  li2:ht  which  Christ  bestows 
on  the  blind.  It  is  no  doubt  true,  that 
Christ  denied  mxcrcy  to  none  that  asked 
it ;  but  you  do  not  reflect  that  vows  and 
prayers  are  dictated  by  the  Holy  Spirit ; 
nay  that  faith  w^hich  is  the  fruit  of 
gratuitous  election,  is  the  key  which 
opens  the  gate  to  prayers. 

While  you  are  ignorant  of  these  first 
principles,  the  denial  of  w^hich  reduces 
the  gospel  to  a  level  with  the  rites  of 
Proserpine  and  Bacchus,  it  is  surprising 
that  any  called  christians  should  be 
found,  entangling  themselves  w^ith  errors 
so  enormous.  As  to  your  flippant  inso- 
lence, about  my  disciples  being  like  my 
God,  cruel,  envious,  calumnious,  proud, 


112  ON    SECRET 

carrying  one  thing  on  their  tongue, 
another  in  their  heart,  I  will  undertake 
to  refute  it  not  so  much  by  word,  as  by 
fact.  As  I  have  no  delight  in  evil  speak- 
ing, let  your  crimes  remain  unnoticed  by 
me  ;  except  that  I  am  at  liberty,  and  it  is 
worth  while,  to  testify  bet'fjre  God  to  this 
one  thing,  that  although  1  have  fed  you  in 
my  house,  I  never  beheld  a  man  prouder, 
more  deceitful,  or  more  destitute  of  hu- 
manity than  yourself.  That  man  is 
without  all  judgment,  who  do(^s  not  per- 
ceive 3'OU  to  be,  at  once  an  impostor,  an 
abandoned  cynic  in  3^our  impudence, 
and  a  buffoon  avowedly  scoffing  at  reli- 
gion. 1  would  fain  know  in  what  you 
accuse  me  of  barbarity  ;  unless  possibly 
you  refer  to  your  master  Servetus  ;  yet 
the  judges  themselves,  two  of  whom 
w^ere  his  zealous  patrons,  are  witnesses  to 
the  fact  of  my  having  interceded  in  his 
behalf.  But  enough  of  myself,  and  more 
than  enough. 

What  fruits  my  doctrine  produces,  not 
only  in  this  city,  but  wdde  and  far  through 
many  lands,  I  leave  for  the  consideration 
of  all.  From  this  school,  which  you  so 
atrociously  assail,  God  dailv  chooses  vie- 


PROVIDENCE.  113 

tims,  of  the  best  and  sweetest  odour,  to 
illustrate  the  doctrine  of  his  Gospel.  The 
students  theie,  (of  whom  the  number  at 
least  is  respectable,)  exemplify  a  painful 
abstinence,  and  yet  are  conspicuous  for 
patience  and  gentleness  ;  or  discarding 
former  luxuries,  they  are  forw^ard  and 
contented  in  the  practice  of  frugahty. 
Denying  themselves  and  the  world,  they 
all  aspire  to  the  hope  of  a  blessed  immor- 
tality. But  because  it  is  inexpedient 
foi  me  to  boast,  let  the  Lord  answer  for 
me,  by  those  displays  of  his  favour, 
which  he  has  given  in  behalf  of  that  doc- 
trine, which  is  in  vain  assailed  by  your 
foetid  abuse. 

But  I  should  like  to  be  informed  by 
you,  respecting  your  character,  when 
you  favoured  this  doctrine.  You  allege 
that  it  had  not  been  sufficiently  under- 
stood by  you,  in  consequence  of  your  be- 
ing hampered  by  my  authority,  so  that 
you  held  it  unlawful  to  form  any  opposite 
opinion.  You  must  assuredly  have  been 
too  dull,  not  to  comprehend  in  several 
years,  what  I  both  taught  you  familiarly 
at  home,  and  so  frequently  expounded  in 
your   hearing   in   the    public    assembly. 


114  ON    SECRET 

Now  there  are  many  competent  wit- 
nesses to  prove,  thnt  although  I  tailed  in 
the  various  attempts  I  made  to  correct 
and  care  3^our  depravity  of  temper,  yet 
so  long  as  3^ou  kept  up  appearances  with 
me,  you  were  restrained  as  by  a  bridle  ; 
so  that  the  cause  of  your  alienation,  may 
well  seem  to  have  been,  that  very  licen- 
tiousness, which  sought  uncurbed,  to 
break  to  the  impiety  in  which  you  now 
glory. 

You  tell  us  you  mind  what  is  said,  not 
who  speaks.  Would  that  you  had 
brought  yourself  before  this,  candidly  to 
profit  b}^  the  labours  of  others,  and  thus 
to  form  a  habit  of  docility.  As  it  is, 
your  only  accomplishments  being  auda- 
city and  garrulity,  you  seek  consequence 
for  yourself,  by  despising  others.  For 
my  part,  I  arrogate  nothing  to  myself, 
but  I  think  I  have  deserved  this  of  the 
church,  that  if  I  may  rank  among  the 
faithful  servants  of  God,  my  authority 
should  not  be  lendered  odious.  If  you 
said  that  a  lew  unlearned  men  hung  on 
my  nofl,  or  were  infiuenced  by  mv  repu- 
tation, you  might  give  some  colour  to 
vour  calumny  ;  but  now  while  you  make 


PROVIDENCE,  115 

it  my  fault  that  illiterate  men  are  dis- 
pleased with  my  doctrine,  who  will 
believe  yon  that  learned  and  ingenious 
men  alone  relish  my  books  ;  nay  that 
such  men  are  held  thunderstruck  by 
mere  authority,  from  forming  an  indepen- 
dent opinion  ? 

So  far  as  your  authority  goes  then, 
nothing  is  proved  that  is  not  rendered 
plausible  to  the  vulgar.  And  this,  for- 
sooth, is  the  reason  why  yon  deter  all 
from  liberal  learning  ;  and  to  gain  more 
disciples,  boast  to  your  followers,  that  all 
study  is  vain  and  frivolous,  which  is  em- 
ployed in  philosophy,  logic,  and  other 
arts,  and  even  in  theology^  itself.  You 
object  that  the  followers  of  Christ  were 
of  this  character  ;  as  if  there  were  any 
inconsistency  between  literature,  and  the 
Chr  istian  faith.  Here  let  readers  observe 
the  difference  between  you  and  me.  I 
maintain  that  the  wisest  men  are  bhnded 
by  their  own  pride,  and  never  even 
taste  the  heavenly  doctrine,  till  such 
time  as  they  become  Ibols,  and  com- 
manding their  own  notions  to  be  gone, 
devote  themselves  in  meek  simphcitv  to 
the   obedience   of  Christ.     For   human 


116  ON    SECRET 

reason  is  utterly  undiscerning,  and  hu- 
man acuteness  stupid,  in  the  mysteries 
of  God.  Therefore,  1  say  that  humihty 
is  the  beginning  of  true  wisdom  ;  a  hu- 
mihty that  empties  us  of  all  carnal  wisdom, 
so  that  faith  may  begin  in  reverence  for 
divine  mysteries.  You  invite  illiterate 
men  to  come  forward,  and  despising  all 
learning,  and  inflated  merely  with  the 
breath  of  arrogance,  audaciously  to  de- 
cide on  the  mysteries  of  heaven  ;  nor 
will  you  acknowledge  any  as  legitimate 
arbiters,  except  those,  who  satisfied  with 
common  notions,  stoutly  reject  what- 
ever does  not  suit  their  fancy. 

The  Apostle  Paul  will  easily  answer 
another  reproach,  which  you  cast  on  my 
disciples,  for  they  have  his  authority,  for 
leaving  you  and  such  like  heretics  to 
yourselves  ;  rather  than  by  listening  to 
you,  voluntarily  to  pollute  their  ears  with 
your  blasphemies.  You  deny  that  such  is 
the  proper  course,  for  that  all  should  be 
heard.  As  if,  indeed,  there  were  no 
meaning  in  the  command,  to  avoid  a 
heretic  who  refuses  to  repent,  after  the 
second  and  third  solemn  admonition.  If 
any   man    denied   you  a  hearing,   you 


PROVIDENCE.  117 

would  have  some  ground  for  complaint ; 
but  when  you  went  away  vanquished 
from  the  public  assembly,  at  which  you 
had  full  scope  to  babble,  nay  to  which 
you  had  been  summoned  and  almost 
dragged ;  what  limit,  pray,  will  there  be, 
if  pious  ears  must  be  always  open,  till 
your  appetite  for  God-reviling  may  be 
satiated  ?  You  take  no  oidinary  plea- 
sure in  ridiculing  all  pious  principles. 
Would  you  have  the  sons  of  God  so  stu- 
pid, as  either  to  be  pleased  with  your 
insolence,  or  to  listen  unmoved  to  your 
sacrilemous  revilino^. 

So  far  as  the  cause  itself  is  concerned 
I  am  confident  I  have  so  answered  3^ou, 
that  all  judicious  readers  may  easily  dis- 
cern, that  that  Spirit  has  not  been  with- 
held from  me,  to  whom  it  belongs  to 
grant  a  mouth  and  wisdom,  which  if  you 
persist  in  resisting,  you  will  betray  an 
obstinacy  equalled  only  by  your  disgrace. 
I  shall  not  cease  to  wish  and  to  pray, 
though  I  dare  scarcely  hope,  that  you 
may  at  length  yield  to  manifest  truth. 

As  to  your  concluding  cavil,  that  I  have 
no  reason  to  be  provoked  at  your  abuse, 
if  I  believe  that  your  writing  was  neces- 


118  ON    SECRET 

sary  ;  it  is  indeed  to  my  mind  a  serious 
and  efficacious  exhortation  to  self-pos- 
session, inasmuch  as  nothing  is  more  use- 
ful, or  better  adapted,  for  bridling  indig- 
nation, than  David's  admonition,  "let 
him  curse  for  God  has  so  commanded." 
David,  it  is  true,  was  well  aware  that 
Shimei  was  instigated  by  that  same  lust 
for  railing,  with  which  you  now  boil ; 
but  believing  that  the  impetuous  abuse, 
which  the  railer  fancied  himself  utterins' 
at  random,  was  ordered  by  the  secret 
Providence  of  God,  the  monarch  is  re- 
strained by  his  religious  convictions. 
For  no  man  will  ever  endure  with  calm 
moderation,  the  assaults  of  the  Devil  and 
the  wicked,  who  does  not  turn  his  thoughts 
from  them  to  God  alone. 

May  God  quell  thee,  Satan  !    Amen  ! 

Geneva,  5th  January,  1558. 


3216CJ„   6611 

03-0R-07  32180     MC     '" 


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